Simple Tech 160 GB Hard Drive not Recognized

[ja1027]

Hello,
I have Window 7 and and external Hard drive by Simple Tech. In Device Manager the drive shows up but not when I click on My computer. It only shows my internal hard drives. This device has always been recognized but I just disconnected everything from a move and after reconnection it does not show up under My computer. IS there any other way to access the data and copy it to another hard or jump drive? Thanks, Joan

 

[ELMO_2006]

In Device Manager does the drive show up with a drive letter assigned i.e. H:
If not then you would need to assign a drive letter.

 

[ja1027]

Under control panel, Devices and hardware, it shows up and there is no letter that is assigned. I am not able to assign a letter in this area. Perhaps there is another place I need to look in order to assign a letter.

It used to show up under Computer which showed all the disk drives, now it only shows c and D

 

[ELMO_2006]

Right mouse My Computer > Manage > Disk Management.
Locate the 160GB HDD and right mouse click on the actual drive, and click on Change Drive Letter and Paths, then click on Add, select a Drive Letter and then click on OK.

 

[ja1027]

Thanks. It shows up as Disk 1, states it is working properly but i snot initialized. I don''t want to do that because I will really lose all my data. Does that mean it is corrupt? I don't care so much about the drive, just getting the data (pictures) off of it.

 

[ELMO_2006]

Theoretically you should not lose the data, however I've read otherwise. If you have a laptop sitting around or maybe you can use a buddy's desktop to grab the contents off the drive and then re-initialize.

Personally speaking I've done this many times before however I had never ever had to re-initialize the drive.

Or if you have an Ubuntu boot disk, you maybe able to boot up into a "Live System", gain access to the drive and copy the contents offline via usb or another HDD.