Maxtor OneTouch external drive no longer accessible.

I've got a Maxtor OneTouch III Mini external USB drive that I use at work for storing and transporting files.

Last week, they had to put a new hard drive in my company laptop computer, and although they said they restored as much of the original drive contents as they could, I can no longer access the Maxtor.

It shows up as working correctly in Device Manager, but it doesn't show up in My Computer and I just cannot access it any more!

I've tried uninstalling it and then plugging it back in, but after the computer displaying a message balloon that my new USB storage device is ready for use, it just can't be accessed.

I've looked on the Maxtor(Seagatea) site, but nothing about this problem and they have no software to download for that drive outside of backup software and that's not what I need.

It says that the drive contains all the needed software and will install itself when you plug it in, but it doesn't do anything when I plug it in now.

I see a folder named Maxtor in the Program Files, but there doesn't appear to be anything except a few text files in there. I assume that these have the password for the drive in them but no executable files are there.

I tried renaming and moving this folder, figuring the drive was looking for it, and might give me a prompt to reinstall the software if it doesn't see it, but no luck.

Is anyone able to help with this? I've spent some time searching the 'net' for a solution, but can find nothing that seems to be of help.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer some help!

First off: It is a USB hard drive. Reformatting a computer will have no effect on the contents of the drive...

First question:
Was the drive plugged in when they reformatted your computer? Could have been a woops.

2.) Check Disk management to see the condition of the drive.
Right click on My Computer and select "manage". Select Disk Management. If the drive is reporting "unallocated space" it means it was reformatted, or data corruption occurred.

If the drive shows NTFS (or FAT32..) but no drive letter. Right click on the drive and assign it one.


Do these two things and get back to us.

Ok. I understand what they did to your machine. We call it the COE, or common operating environment.


Anyway:
Because it only shows up in Device manager, that means the system does not detect it as a hard drive (mass storage device) but as a USB device.


You need to have the USB drivers updated. Depending on the age of the system, it may require bios updates as well.

The other option is that the drive is fried. (though unlikely because Device Manager should report issues with the device).

Note: there is no special drivers needed to use a Maxtor OneTouch.

The drive would still be recognizable as a drive though, encrypted or not. Either way, thats a great suggestion.

That does not make an sense unless the drive was configured for a type of Encryption as Jonkc mentioned.

All Maxtor onetouch (1/2/3...) are plug and play. I use them for backups and for connecting them directly to my stereo for audio playback.

Hi Comrade

Same problem...worked yesterday, dead today...lights are on but my Macs or PCs wont recognise it

Tech Support said it was a hardware issue...probably because it's out of warranty

If you have the link i would like to try it, just to see if it helps

Cheers

From a FAQ on Seagate's website:

This implies that a password-protected drive cannot auto-load its software utilities when connected to a new computer.

could you sen me the link from seagate??? pplease

I too am having the same problem. The drive appears in Disk Management, but without a volume (not drive letter). When I right click on it I am not presented with the option to assign it a drive letter. I too would be grateful for the link to the software.

THanks!