Drive No Longer Recognized.

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chriscotty

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One day my external drive stopped being recognized (500 GB Western Digital). Initial error was I/O input output error.It does show up in Device Manager as "usb mass storage device". I tried to reinstall driver and it says it is the same driver . I do not think it is a physical problem with the hard drive as when it is not plugged in to the usb port the green light is constant, yet when it is plugged in it switches from red to green intermittenly. I did think it could have been because of the case so I bought another external sata casing but the same problem still occurs.

When I try to boot up with the computer off the computer will hang.

I have 150 gbs of important data so would prefer to not reformat .

Any suggestions ?

Thanks !

PS I posted before under general storage whereas hard diks is more specific.

 
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chriscotty

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Is it allocated in disk management?

...Yes, but only as a "USB mass storage device"

Try uninstalling the USB root hubs in the device manager and then restart. They will reinstall upon the restart.

.................I have already tested it on 4 computers (including a mac)...

It also could be a bad power adapter.

......................I took it out of the original enclosure and bought a new one..same thing.


...............Again...light is green and is spinning yet when I plug it in the light intermittently changes from green to red and back again ...

.................Do you still think it is worth reinstalling all usb root hubs even though it has not worked on 4 computers ?

.....................What would you say the next step should be ?
 
aford10

aford10

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Disk management and the device manager are 2 different things. It would show up as a mass storage device in the device manager. You want to look under disk management to see if the drive is allocated.
start-->right click on my computer-->manage
With the drive plugged in, it should show in the top window. If not, look in the bottom window and see the status of the drive (or if it's even there)

Uninstalling the usb hubs is a real quick, simple thing to try. It can be effective for usb devices that are having troubles.

You put it in a new enclosure, but was it a new power cord?
 
mikey5802

mikey5802

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No, don't waste your time uninstalling the USB root hubs...if the device didn't work on 4 computers, the unit is bad. If it's still under warranty, it's time to contact the manufacturer. Also inquire about data recovery policies.
 
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chriscotty

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It was a brand new enclosure as well as a brand new ac power cord.

It does show up in Disc Management as E but does not show a file system and says the entire drive is free (465 GB). It is also showing the drive as healthy .Also..the drive light is all green at this point.

So when you say uninstall all the root hubs...I would do that one by one and then reboot with the external drive on ? You would think the hubs would be fine on at least one of the 4 computers..

I should also note that when I boot up with the enclosure on the computer hangs as well.



What is the next move ?


Thanks for your help so far !!!

PS I should also note that it is now showing up as a local drive in my computer...but now is back to red and green and hanging and not responding to commands right away but eventually responding ... as soon as I turn off the drive the computer runs normally.

I am leaving the drive on and connected at the moment until I hear from you.
 
aford10

aford10

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Try running a chkdsk on the drive. If you have an OS disc, boot into the repair console and run a chkdsk /r.

It's very possible that there's nothing wrong w/ the usb hubs. It's a very simple trick to try to get the usb ports to recognize your device. You just right click on them and uninstall them one by one. But, since the drive is now showing under my computer, the hubs aren't the problem as they are seeing the drive fine.
 
aford10

aford10

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Ya, don't waste your time. It takes a whole 2 minutes to uninstall the hubs. It's more beneficial to give up and assume the drive is bad. You sound like HP phone support.
 
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chriscotty

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Sorry I am a little confused.

So I should turn off the computer and go in to the bios and boot from xp disc ?

I am exploring the disc it and do not see anything that says "repair console" This is XP Pro SP3.


Also...it is still chkdsk /r even though it is local disk E , right ?
 
aford10

aford10

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1. insert retail OS disc
2. connect external drive
3. restart
4. press any key when prompted
5. choose r to repair external drive partition
6. admin password is blank by default, so hit enter
7. if your external drive is E, that's the letter that you should see waiting for a command
8. type chkdsk /r and hit enter

this will search and fix any errors it can
 
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chriscotty

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Close call...

When I did that it went in to installing the os again..I hit a key and it booted from the cd

Is there any way of doing it when the computer is already booted since no files are open on E ?

How would I have done it if I did not have the os disc ?




 
aford10

aford10

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It will look similar to installing windows. There's an option to repair or start the format/install process.

You can do it from the command prompt inside windows. I just prefer to do it from the repair console so I know nothing is running on the drive.
 
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chriscotty

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So it will actually go in to "windows setup" (which it did) and start installing drivers and everything else ( I basically turnned the power off)


The computer is still working ..though a bit slower (this is my second machine and is backed up so if I ended screwing something up I can reinstall windows)




So I am going to run chkdsk after booting windows.

So I go to

run
enter cmd

then what ?

Thanks !
 
aford10

aford10

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There are 4 or 5 keystrokes before it would've started the format/install process, so your data is fine. Though, shutting down like that isn't usually a good thing. You may also want to run a defrag after this.

If you want to do this inside windows, boot up as normal. Start-->programs-->accessories-->command prompt

Type E: to change to the external drive

Then type chkdsk /r
 
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chriscotty

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Yeah I am sure it is not a good thing to do that..but nothing else I would do would stop it =-)


So I go to start-run- type in cmd

dos window comes up

c:\documents and settings\Administrator>

I enter E: and hit enter....

went to the next line now it is hanging...(I did make sure that disc management recognized the drive first before going in to dos prompt and then closed that window so nothing is running on e)

So now should I just wait (the light goes from red to green ) ?

There is only 512 mb of ram on this machine whereas my laptop has a gig.

Should I switch it over or just wait ?

UPDATE: It now says

Data error (cyclic redundancy check).


Also...if I do run after rebooting is it supposed to say "windows install (or something similar) and have a blue screen and look like it is installing drivers etc)
 
aford10

aford10

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chriscotty

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It does not look like either picture...it goes right in to windows setup and started loading drivers from cd.


Do you think it would make a difference if it boots up from start up ?


If so I can try it on my toshiba laptop with the oem toshiba disc.Thing is the disc is like 3 years old and is SP1..Would that make a difference?

(yet the laptop is running SP3 ..same with desktop for that matter)
 
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chriscotty

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It is not loading drivers now..It boots up the way it usually boots up. I was referring to when the OS disc is in the drive.

 
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doughboi

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I had the same problem and it was a simple fix for me. It was a loose connection in my USB hub. Sometimes the simplest fixes are the obvious first step diagnosis.
 
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