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Maxtor OneTouch external drive no longer accessible.

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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!

More about : maxtor onetouch external drive longer accessible

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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.

They didn't reformat the old drive...., they replaced it with a new drive. The way they do it here is they order a new drive, and then put what they call a 'standard build' on it with all the basic programs along with any job specific ones we request. Then, they back up what they can of your old settings and personal info, and put that back onto the new drive, and then install it into the laptop.

The Maxtor shows up in Device Manager as working, but when I go to My Computer and click on Manage...., it doesn't show up there at all. The light on it goes on when I plug it in, so it's getting power, but it doesn't show up anywhere except in Device Manager.
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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.

I had to deal with this similar problem once. The drive I encountered was password protected before we re-imaged the pc. I had to re-install the Maxtor software to un-protect the drive...

I got through to a helpful technical support guy on Seagate/Maxtor's web site. He sent me a link to the software that I needed to reinstall. It works now.

The drive didn't come with a disk. Just the software on the drive that installed itself when you plugged it in the first time.

But...., it's all working now.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions!

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


hi comrade,i got the same problem also can i have the link...any1 knows why when i use my maxtor on my macbook for quite sometimes and then when i plug to my pc it doesn't do anything when I plug it in now. :( 

CompTIA_Rep said:
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.


From a FAQ on Seagate's website:

Quote:

When moving my locked OneTouch 4 drive to another system, my drive is not recognized ...why?

The reason for this is because most likely the Maxtor Manager is not installed on the second system. To resolve this issue, you can do one of the following:

* Return your OneTouch 4 to the original system and remove DrivePass temporarily and move it to the second system

* Download the OneTouch 4 Installation software from Seagate's Website and install it on the second system. At which time, you can connect the OneTouch 4 drive to this system and unlock it.


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

hi comrade
I have the same problem wherein the drive shows up only in device manager and not anywhere else. can u please send me the link to the software you were suggested?
thanks!

comrade said:
I got through to a helpful technical support guy on Seagate/Maxtor's web site. He sent me a link to the software that I needed to reinstall. It works now.

The drive didn't come with a disk. Just the software on the drive that installed itself when you plugged it in the first time.

But...., it's all working now.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions!



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

Wow same problem here
Maxtor one touch is really not user friendly... Damn, shouldnt have bought it.
But still have to have it fixed to retrieve my collected precious....

PLease please post the link.....

PLEASE!!!

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!
Anonymous

comrade said:
I got through to a helpful technical support guy on Seagate/Maxtor's web site. He sent me a link to the software that I needed to reinstall. It works now.

The drive didn't come with a disk. Just the software on the drive that installed itself when you plugged it in the first time.

But...., it's all working now.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions!



I could realy use that link as well - please could you post it - I might be reading this thread right but I can't find the link you referred to???
Regards
Sharon

Hey guys,

If you're still following this thread, I think I found the "LINK" everyone is asking for. Its not really a link though. You will have to email the tech support at seagate so they can email you back the link to the software download. Here is link to the page that tells you what to do.



or...

> seagate.com
> support and downloads
> downloads
> maxtor one touch 4
> (click on your model of ext. hard drive)
> seagate technical support

and send them an email with you serial number.

I haven't gotten their email back yet, so I'm not sure yet if this is solid, but I'll repost to let yall know if it is (if I remember to that is).

THE COOLEST!

My Maxtor OneTouch4 gets recognized in Device Manager, NOT in Disk Management (yes, there are available drive letters).

I was able to get one of the Seagate programs to tell me the serial number and drive, but it won't show up in MyComputer.

But then, SOMETIMES the drive is shown as an unknown device in the USB manager. It's really weird...

Tech support isn't much help...

I have tried uninstalling all USB devices, no luck.

Maybe I should should just update my BIOS?

How does one open a BIN file? for the BIOS? and how would I update it?
Anonymous

[from mlvl.jr@gmail.com]

Well, I had the same problem as you all (Windows 7, after I split the tail of my Windows disk and created a new logical drive in it): the drive was recognized in the Device Manager, but was not in the Windows Explorer (that was due to the fact that the drive letter that had previously benn [automatically] assigned to the Maxtor external drive was now [somehow] taken by the new logical drive).

To solve this problem:

1. Go to "Control Panel > ... >Disk Management", find your drive there (it will have no letter assigned), right click, choose to assign letter, assign one, DONE.

2. Just for the case, the Maxtor "Software" everyone is talking here of is [currently] at http://www.seagate.com/support/software/setupOT4Plus_GM... (thats the link my Maxtor Manager used when trying to update itself [unsuccessfully, hehe], so one can "intercept" it just looking at the error message (as I did), or, probably, with treh help of firewall logs).

Hope this helps,
V. M., Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

So... I can sometimes get Maxtor Manager to see my extrenal Onetouch4, but it says the drive is either not recognized or has no partition. I am trying to save the tone of music backed up on it, so I don't want to format.

Any way to recover the data? Or is the drive corrupted????
Anonymous

I also got this problem i downloaded the Maxtor Manager but it doesn't seems to recognize my one touch III 250gb. I mean is completely dissapear, cannot see a foot print of my maxtor on my computer. Except the time u plug it in and window said the USB IS not regconize. Plzz help meee, all my important data are in there need some help
Anonymous



Hi there, I'm using Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1TB for about a year now. It never gave me problem before. During the weekend a friend of mine borrowed the hard disk and after a few days it cannot be detected on her PC.



I tried connecting it to my MacBook after she returned it to me but it doesn't appear on my finder and disk utility.



But on system profiler, the Macbook detected the connection made via firewire.



Can anyone tell me the solution for this problem as I've been trying to Google-d all night but I couldn't find the answer.



The hard disk doesn't produce any weird sound and the LED is not blinking.



I'm on Mac OS 10.6
Anonymous

go to a pc, win vista or 7 intialize the diask, then assign a new drive letter as all the step follows. format using fat32 and u will be able to use the drive again. have doen 3 times on 3 different disks, worked everytime. i just dont know how to do it in a mac thats all. it will recogninse it after.

my 1tb one touch blinks when i plug it in but after it says new software detected, i get an error saying that USB device not recognized one of the usb devices on your pc has malfucntioned when i click the error it takes me to a screen like going into device manager.. im running win xp and root hub works generic usb hub workds but where the maxtor one touch should be it says unknown device and when i check the properties it says no drivers are installed. but it works on my laptop just not my pc. please help also no drive shows up in my computer, please respond or message me at Removed
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