I can see my external hard drive in device manager, but not in my comp

[awesomeman]

Recently my sisters system began to slow down dramatically (most likely due to a virus), until one day it wouldn't boot at all because it couldn't find a hard drive on her system. I reconnected all the cables, which didn't work, so I took it over to my system thinking it might be a bad cable, but it wasn't, and so a friend loaned me an internal HDD to external HDD. After I plugged in the USB cable, I was notified that a Mass Storage Device had been connected, so I went to My Computer and it wasn't there. I checked in Device Manager, however, and it said it was working fine. I couldn't see it in Disk Management, so after looking around for solutions, I found that when I went into my registry, went to Mounted Devices and found the "DosDevice" that said "U.S.B.S.T.O..." (USB storage) and renamed it with another drive letter, I could see it in Disk Management. I was then able to see it in My Computer. When I tried to click on it, though, it said there was an I/O device error. Since it was 2:00am and I had already fixed another unrelated problem on another computer that certain people *cough* had neglected to mention until 10:00pm, I went to bed figuring I would use data recovery software to try to save as much data as I could from the hard drive. However, when I got up this morning and went to work on it, I could no longer see it in My Computer (though I could see it in Device Manager), hence I went to the registry to try what I had done earlier. Except, U.S.B.S.T.O.... was no longer there. I have older versions of my registry that don't help at all, and neither does using System Restore. At this point I'm back to square one. I'm betting this hard drive is simply screwed and trying to get anything off it without going to a recovery specialist is a lost cause =P. If anyone could help with this it would be greatly appreciated. The system I'm trying to fix it on is Windows XP Pro w/ Service Pack 3, and the hard drive in question is an IDE 20GB Western Digital Protege. I've tried using different jumper configurations, but to no avail.
Thanks.

 

[Rogue77777]

How many drives are you currently using. If you have a HD or CDrom drive that's using Drive letter F or G, try going to your device manager and changing the F or G to a higher letter. Sometimes when you plug a usb in, it tries to take one of those. If the usb shows after that, you can change it to a higher drive letter and then change your other drive back to the original one.
Another thing to do is just unplug one of your cdroms and add the old hard drive as a slave. Boot up and you should see it.

 

[awesomeman]

I only use A to E right now. I tried connecting the hard drive as a slave before I even had the internal to external converter, but I still had no luck getting it to show up.

 

[eagles453809]

hmmm.....maybe the mbr is bad???

 

[Lonesome]

Humm. IDE 20GB Western Digital Protege !
seems to be a very old HD, used a lot and maybe dead forever.

Try to Google "repair a broken hard drive"

 

[jitpublisher]

Yep, sounds like the drive has finally died. Can't believe a person would be storing valuable files on a drive that old........you gotta know that everyday it keeps going is simply a miracle anymore.

 

[awesomeman]

They weren't really important, it's just that obviously any loss of data isn't fun =P. Thanks for the advice all!

 

[EmirS]

Might be a little late but you might try this.
If the drive can be seen by device manager but not under My Computer, right click my computer and go to "Manage".

You should see your harddrive either lister as foreign or not initialized. If foreign, it will give you an option to import and is not initialized, it will allow you to initialize it.

This will hand over drive management to the OS and you should be able to see it in My Computer.

If it's borked, you obviously won't be able to use it but it might not be.

Good luck

PS, you might wan't to first undo the drive letter change and whatever you had done previously to get it to work.

 

[SirSeraphim]

If you can see it under Device Manager as working and not in My Computer at all you will need to undo any partition and then do a quick format to get it to work. You should also notice the LED not flashing before you do this. I JUST did this to two different HD's. One was a Passport and the other a My Book.

I right clicked on My Computer, clicked on Manage, then on the left you will see Disk Management. Click on that. You should see ALL of your HD's as well as your Burners. Right click on your "broken" HD and delete volume. It should go Unallocated. Right click on Drive again and format with a quick format since you have no data on it anymore. It should work. Good luck!

 

[TonyNC]

Just go to:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196/en-us

That should take care of it!

 

[jecaballes]

My LG external hardisk is getting worst, I couldn't see it even in my device manager. I have lots of important files there but my external drives does't show in any computer, it only lights up indicating that it is connected and working but actually it's not.

Could someone tell me how to work this out? I need my files in there asap. Please advice...

 

[kerrys]

If you can see it under Device Manager as working and not in My Computer at all you will need to undo any partition and then do a quick format to get it to work. You should also notice the LED not flashing before you do this. I JUST did this to two different HD's. One was a Passport and the other a My Book.

I right clicked on My Computer, clicked on Manage, then on the left you will see Disk Management. Click on that. You should see ALL of your HD's as well as your Burners. Right click on your "broken" HD and delete volume. It should go Unallocated. Right click on Drive again and format with a quick format since you have no data on it anymore. It should work. Good luck!

It DID work beautifully!!! Thank you. I was about to give up.

 

[Guest]

You have made me one happy bunny, I've got the iomega desktop hard drive, and could not get it to initialize. and i've been trying for about two weeks now , I even went on iomega site and chatted with online help and still no joy, so this is a big thank you to you for your help, as i was close to throwing the thing out the window lol....

 

[Guest]

If you can see it under Device Manager as working and not in My Computer at all you will need to undo any partition and then do a quick format to get it to work. You should also notice the LED not flashing before you do this. I JUST did this to two different HD's. One was a Passport and the other a My Book.

I right clicked on My Computer, clicked on Manage, then on the left you will see Disk Management. Click on that. You should see ALL of your HD's as well as your Burners. Right click on your "broken" HD and delete volume. It should go Unallocated. Right click on Drive again and format with a quick format since you have no data on it anymore. It should work. Good luck!

I had the same problem with my 250 GB WD My Book, I was a little ticked off and also about to give up on my hd, then I did this and my drive is working again )))

I'm so thankful. Much appreciated

 

[Guest]

I have a 1TB external and it shows up in devise manager but it is not listed in computer management ???

 

[mggray]

I have a 1TB external and it shows up in devise manager but it is not listed in computer management ???

I just bought a 1TB Internal WD Caviar Blue drive and I mounted it in an External enclosure. I had the same issue as you with it showing up in Device Manager but not in My Computer.

Following the steps below, I managed to get the drive working properly.

I clicked the Windows icon (Start button) in the Windows Taskbar, right clicked My Computer, and clicked Manage. This opens the Computer Management application.
On the left is a list of computer functions you can adjust. Click Storage - Disc Management.
The middle screen will split into a list of existing Hard Drives on the top (as seen in My Computer) and a lower list of all available discs, including Hard Drives and Removable Storage. If your drive is new, it should appear in this lower screen as a disc that is not initialized. Right click the grey area (with the drive description) and select Initialize.
After the process has finished, right click the hatch-marked area to the right of the drive description. You should see an option to create a New Volume. Select that and complete the additional steps through the Wizard. From here on it's pretty self-explanatory.

When this is completed you should be able to open My Computer and see your drive with whatever Drive Letter and Volume Name you chose to assign it.

 

[Guest]

Hello all...

I'm having a similar problem as the rest of you, except for the fact that, although my MyBook Essential 1Tb external shows up under device manager as working fine, it doesn't show up under "My Computer" OR Disc Management. The only extra drive showing is the WD Smartware virtual CD-Rom drive (e:\). It was working fine until a day ago under the f:\ heading until a power interruption, then just disappeared completely! It was only about a month old.

I tried checking the power cable and USB cord for faults as advised by WD's FAQ page, to no avail. I'm thinking of removing the drive, removing the USB-to-ccircuitboard adapter (which just unplugs once unscrewed), and hooking it up to the mobo internally. The SATA sockets are identical to the internal drive, so would it all work?

It has been formatted by the factory, and has a LOT of data I want to retrieve somehow. (I'm thinking that the aforementioned adaptor-board might have been damaged. I want to run data recovery on the drive, but it needs to see the drive first!

Any help?

 

[techiegrrl]

I just bought a 1TB Internal WD Caviar Blue drive and I mounted it in an External enclosure. I had the same issue as you with it showing up in Device Manager but not in My Computer.

Following the steps below, I managed to get the drive working properly.

I clicked the Windows icon (Start button) in the Windows Taskbar, right clicked My Computer, and clicked Manage. This opens the Computer Management application.
On the left is a list of computer functions you can adjust. Click Storage - Disc Management.
The middle screen will split into a list of existing Hard Drives on the top (as seen in My Computer) and a lower list of all available discs, including Hard Drives and Removable Storage. If your drive is new, it should appear in this lower screen as a disc that is not initialized. Right click the grey area (with the drive description) and select Initialize.
After the process has finished, right click the hatch-marked area to the right of the drive description. You should see an option to create a New Volume. Select that and complete the additional steps through the Wizard. From here on it's pretty self-explanatory.

When this is completed you should be able to open My Computer and see your drive with whatever Drive Letter and Volume Name you chose to assign it.

This helped me. I had exact same problem with a western digital caviar. Thank you for posting. You saved me a lot of time and headache.
Techiegrrl

 

[Guest]

Hello all...

I'm having a similar problem as the rest of you, except for the fact that, although my MyBook Essential 1Tb external shows up under device manager as working fine, it doesn't show up under "My Computer" OR Disc Management. The only extra drive showing is the WD Smartware virtual CD-Rom drive (e:\). It was working fine until a day ago under the f:\ heading until a power interruption, then just disappeared completely! It was only about a month old.

I tried checking the power cable and USB cord for faults as advised by WD's FAQ page, to no avail. I'm thinking of removing the drive, removing the USB-to-ccircuitboard adapter (which just unplugs once unscrewed), and hooking it up to the mobo internally. The SATA sockets are identical to the internal drive, so would it all work?

It has been formatted by the factory, and has a LOT of data I want to retrieve somehow. (I'm thinking that the aforementioned adaptor-board might have been damaged. I want to run data recovery on the drive, but it needs to see the drive first!

Any help?

Often USB problems are caused by a lack of power to the USB device. Hard drives are one of the most demanding. Avoid unpowered USB hubs and front USB ports on desktops as these are the most likely to give you trouble. Some laptops have trouble from all ports supplying enough power a powered hub may help with this.

 

[Guest]

Might be a little late but you might try this.
If the drive can be seen by device manager but not under My Computer, right click my computer and go to "Manage".

You should see your harddrive either lister as foreign or not initialized. If foreign, it will give you an option to import and is not initialized, it will allow you to initialize it.

This will hand over drive management to the OS and you should be able to see it in My Computer.

If it's borked, you obviously won't be able to use it but it might not be.

Good luck

PS, you might wan't to first undo the drive letter change and whatever you had done previously to get it to work.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
This helped with my problem.

 

[orgaleader]

hi, i have the same problem but when i come to the point to "initialize" i get a message " disk is write protected"

 

[buwish]

This topic has been closed by Buwish