Can see external hard drive in device manager but not in my comp

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tashiroX7

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May 28, 2012
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Hello,
here's my problem:
-dead toshiba laptop that ran windows XP
-tried to hook the sata hard drive that i took out
and put it into a sata hard drive enclosure
-plugged it into my windows vista Sony Vaio laptop
-the computer says it's connected but it's not showng up on "my computers"
-i checked the device manager and it shows up as a hard drive with no letter
-when i right click it, it won't give me any options other than "help"
- i cna't give it a new letter or anything else.

can anyone please help me?
 

tashiroX7

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May 28, 2012
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that's the thing i can't or it won't let me assign a drive letter. i checked the other drive and it's able to change it or it gives me the option when i right click it but when i right click the drive, the only option it's giving me is "help" that's it.
 
I'm not completely sure what's going on there but you could try a full erase:

www.ultimatebootcd.com

There should be a program under hard drives that lets you do an erase by ZEROS.

So:
1) Create and boot to that CD
2) Do an erase by zeros (maybe unhook other drives to be safe)
3) Assign via Disk Management as per normal
4) FORMAT
 

It might be dying!
 

march_74

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Sep 19, 2012
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hi we have the same problem have you resolve this problem???what did you do?
 

tryit

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Oct 6, 2012
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I just had the same problem with an external that somebody had formatted on a mac. I couldn't see it in my computer but could see it in device manager. I am running windows 7 by the way. I right clicked on my computer, went to "manage." Clicked on "disk management" on the left side. I could click on the drive, but as what somebody said earlier in this thread, only "help" was available. I couldn't assign it a letter or anything else. But what it did let me do is simply delete the whole partition (it warned me that it wasn't created by windows and that it may contain information a different system could read). I didn't have anything on it anyway, so I didn't worry about it and deleted it. It then allowed me to right click on the now unallocated portion that was available and create a new partition, which it easily formatted correctly as NTFS, assigned a letter, etc. Worked after that.

Hope this helps
 

urltom

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Feb 17, 2013
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Thank you, this worked for me after my son borrowed my WDBAAR3200ABK-00 drive to load and boot to Ubuntu. I deleted the volume after the warning "volume was not created by windows". Then followed the wizard to create a new NTFS partition. The formatting process took hours, but completed and assigned a letter to the drive.
 

urltom

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Feb 17, 2013
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Thank you, this worked for me after my son borrowed my WDBAAR3200ABK-00 drive to load and boot to Ubuntu. I deleted the volume after the warning "volume was not created by windows". Then followed the wizard to create a new NTFS partition. The formatting process took hours, but completed and assigned a letter to the drive.
 

kamicaz01dz

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Apr 12, 2013
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kamicaz01dz

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Apr 12, 2013
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go to : storage > disk management
you will see 3 thing :

1- Disk 0 basic

2- Disk 1 basic : 1.00 GB Healthy (Primary Partition) || 467.76 GB health(Primary Partition)

3- CD-ROM


now go where it say Disk 1 basic ,right click { 467.76 GB health(Primary Partition)} than click delete volume

a warning message appear;
the selected partition was not created by windows and might contain data recognized by other operation system.
do you want to delete this partition ?

click yes
now it change the name from primary partition to Unallocated
right click to unallocated click : new simple volume click next >than next > than next > than finish > wait formatting .

unplug you hard drive and try it >than have nice day
 

stephghall

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Sep 15, 2013
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HI, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M HAVING PROBLEMS WITH, BUT MY HARD DRIVE IS FULL OF DATA. IF I CLICK YES TO DELETING THE PARTITION, WILL IT ERASE ALL OF MY DATA?
 
Yes you will but with the chance of recovering it afterwards if you only select a Quick Format. What exactly is your problem Do you have another computer you can slave that hard drive into and transfer the data off first??

By the way, writing in capital letters is the Internet equivalent of shouting. :D
 

jeniferfm

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Sep 27, 2013
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Hello,
I have a same problem, this is the SATA hard drive from my MacAir, got an enclosure for it. Windows showed up under Disk Management, without a name though. I tried to delete as the others point out, but beside the Help option, there's no other even delete option. Can someone help me? Thank you
 

VeeWade

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Jul 22, 2014
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I have had the same problem, I allocated a letter for the drive but I have to do this every time I plug the external back into the computer. Can someone please explain why this is happening. I am going to run out of alphabet :(
 

phre

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Sep 12, 2014
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after i click initialise..an error message prompt says [virtual disk manager] data error (cyclic redundancy check).

WD My Passport external hard drive
 

Miguel Espinosa

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Apr 21, 2013
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Dude I really love you thanks cx

(Foul language amended by Saga Lout)
 

mherman346

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Jan 16, 2016
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I also just had the same trouble that JeniferFM stated: when you try to read an Apple "GUID" formatted hard drive, installed in a typical USB hard drive enclosure, then a Windows PC will not be able to read it.

But the Disk Management system in Windows will see it. The Windows system will use the USB system to find the drive, but since it cannot read the data, it will not assign a drive letter, and will not assign a Volume name (the volume is "missing" in the Microsoft definition).

If you want to get the data from this Apple-formatted drive, do NOT reformat it by the Windows system. Try instead to read the drive using an Apple PC or laptop.

If you take the same USB enclosed Apple drive and plug it into an Apple computer, it will see the drive and (should) read it properly.

If the Apple PC is having trouble reading the drive, you must try to replace the USB cable, and try to replace the USB power supply (they both go can go bad...).


 
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