Hello, I have done hours of Googling and searched these forums without finding a definitive answer, so here's the info:
My Computer: Dell Inspiron laptop (Pentium 4) w/ 512 MB RAM (yep... horrible)
My OS: XP Professional, SP 3
My External HD: Fantom Drives GreenDrive (2 TB) - looking at the properties tells me that this Hitachi is inside. It’s connected to my computer via USB 2.0.
How I THINK I caused the problem: I turned off my computer (I believe the HD was still functioning properly, though I didn't explicitly check it). Once the computer was off, I unplugged the power supply to the external HD without flicking its power switch off (I assumed that b/c the computer off, the drive was done with whatever it might have been doing). I plugged the external drive back in, and booted up the system. The drive showed up, but it was labeled 'local disk' instead of 'Fantom' and it was now drive letter E instead of drive F as it has always been. I tried to open it and instead of opening it gave me a pop-up saying "The disk in drive E is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" I obviously chose 'no' (I need my data!).
Troubleshooting I've done thus far without any change:
My friend has mentioned SpinRite and is willing to let me try that, but based on what I've read that tool not only could potentially do more damage than good and also would take forever on an external 2 TB HD (and that's if I could even get it to run for an external drive attached via USB).
I'm open to any and all suggestions.
Thanks!
My Computer: Dell Inspiron laptop (Pentium 4) w/ 512 MB RAM (yep... horrible)
My OS: XP Professional, SP 3
My External HD: Fantom Drives GreenDrive (2 TB) - looking at the properties tells me that this Hitachi is inside. It’s connected to my computer via USB 2.0.
How I THINK I caused the problem: I turned off my computer (I believe the HD was still functioning properly, though I didn't explicitly check it). Once the computer was off, I unplugged the power supply to the external HD without flicking its power switch off (I assumed that b/c the computer off, the drive was done with whatever it might have been doing). I plugged the external drive back in, and booted up the system. The drive showed up, but it was labeled 'local disk' instead of 'Fantom' and it was now drive letter E instead of drive F as it has always been. I tried to open it and instead of opening it gave me a pop-up saying "The disk in drive E is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" I obviously chose 'no' (I need my data!).
Troubleshooting I've done thus far without any change:
■ Restart
■ Shutdown computer, shut down HD, click the power switch to the HD off, unplug everything, leave everything overnight in a chilly room, reconnect & boot up in the morning
■ Change the external drive back to letter F, reboot again
My friend has mentioned SpinRite and is willing to let me try that, but based on what I've read that tool not only could potentially do more damage than good and also would take forever on an external 2 TB HD (and that's if I could even get it to run for an external drive attached via USB).
I'm open to any and all suggestions.
Thanks!
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