External Hard drive not showing

royster999 · 30-04-2014 8:59pm #1

My WD Elements external hard drive with power adapter is not visible when connected. I have tried on two different laptops (XP and Windows 7).

The hard drive powers up fine. I have tried different USB ports without success.

When I power on it installs the driver and looks like it will be connected, but is not visible in My Computer.

It is also not visible in Disk Management.

Anyone any ideas?

degsie · 30-04-2014 10:51pm

Most likely the USB controller in the enclosure is borked. You could try open the enclosure and remove the drive and attach it directly to a PC to check if it's recognised. Other option is to purchase another enclosure (I assume for 3.5" drive) and put the drive in that.

royster999 · 02-05-2014 8:00am

degsie wrote: »

Most likely the USB controller in the enclosure is borked. You could try open the enclosure and remove the drive and attach it directly to a PC to check if it's recognised. Other option is to purchase another enclosure (I assume for 3.5" drive) and put the drive in that.

Will try that.

How much would a computer hardware shop charge to retrieve all data (1TB) from a broken hard drive?

GarIT · 02-05-2014 8:11am

royster999 wrote: »

Will try that.

How much would a computer hardware shop charge to retrieve all data (1TB) from a broken hard drive?

The average is around €0.50 per GB. The TB isn't actually full is it? If the drive it damaged it can be as high as €100 per GB.

johndoe99 · 02-05-2014 8:50am

is it making any clicking sounds when powered up. If not then buy an enclosure like degsie suggested.

royster999 · 02-05-2014 9:25am

Its at about 950GB. I wouldnt mind spending 80-100 if I got the data back.
Wonder could I select what data to retrieve??

The Hard drive does make the click noise anymore.

Would a different power cable make a difference? The original one is damaged and I used a new one which has very close to the same spec. I assume it doesnt matter as the light shows.

riclad · 02-05-2014 9:28am

YOU could open a pc, put drive on a thin towel,
use sata data cables, power data to connect the drive,
ie use 2 cables from pc dvd drive temporarily.

Open drive case .remove drive.
Switch off pc,remove pc power cable from esb socket.
Connect drive to data ,power cables.

power still goes thru pc.when you power down pc.
switching off pc is not enough.

http://bychaw.blogspot.ie/2011/02/how-to-take-apart-your-wd-elements.html

a pc shop cant recover data if drive heads, internal mechanism is damaged.
This is done by specialist companys, costs 100s of euros.

You,ll need acess to pc with sata to do this.
Any PC less than 7 years old have sata drive interface.

GarIT · 02-05-2014 10:33am

royster999 wrote: »

Its at about 950GB. I wouldnt mind spending 80-100 if I got the data back.
Wonder could I select what data to retrieve??

The Hard drive does make the click noise anymore.

Would a different power cable make a difference? The original one is damaged and I used a new one which has very close to the same spec. I assume it doesnt matter as the light shows.

Most places will let you choose what you want, possibly only by folder or something though.

If it ever made a clicking noise you're looking at several hundred to get any data back. There are several noises a hard drive can make and some sound similar to the click we are talking about, so it might not be but if it is that click there is almost no hope.

If the power cable you used has a different output voltage or amps it is likely that caused the problem.

degsie · 02-05-2014 12:36pm

royster999 wrote: »

Would a different power cable make a difference? The original one is damaged and I used a new one which has very close to the same spec. I assume it doesnt matter as the light shows.

If the problem only happened when you started to use a replacement power source, then that might be the problem. This information would have been useful in your first post.

royster999 · 02-05-2014 3:23pm

degsie wrote: »

If the problem only happened when you started to use a replacement power source, then that might be the problem. This information would have been useful in your first post.

It did work a few times with the different power cable. They are nearly exactly the same spec so I didnt think it was relevent.

GarIT · 02-05-2014 4:32pm

royster999 wrote: »

It did work a few times with the different power cable. They are nearly exactly the same spec so I didnt think it was relevent.

What do you mean by nearly? If they're not the exact same electronically there's your problem.

royster999 · 05-05-2014 9:54pm

Both adapters have:
INPUT: 100-240V ~ 50/60Hz 500mA

The OUTPUT differs:
Original: 12.0V, 1,500mA
New Adapter: 9.0V 1,500mA

Could the adapter not be generating not enough power as it is 3V less in OUTPUT ?

degsie · 05-05-2014 10:08pm

royster999 wrote: »

Both adapters have:
INPUT: 100-240V ~ 50/60Hz 500mA

The OUTPUT differs:
Original: 12.0V, 1,500mA
New Adapter: 9.0V 1,500mA

Could the adapter not be generating not enough power as it is 3V less in OUTPUT ?

Yes, of course. That's the problem!

royster999 · 05-05-2014 10:14pm

Ok it worked a couple of times with it before the original adapter broke, so I thought nothing of it...

Guess I have to get a plug the same spec and try...

GarIT · 05-05-2014 11:20pm

royster999 wrote: »

Could the adapter not be generating not enough power as it is 3V less in OUTPUT ?

No, the adaptor could completely fry the board because of the massive voltage difference. It is highly unlikely that a new adaptor would fix anything.

riclad · 05-05-2014 11:27pm

YOU,D have to put the hardrive in a caddy to test it.
inside case theres a small usb to sata board ,
coonnects to hd thru sata power. data , cables.
that could be damaged,
and the hardisk could be fine.

http://i.testfreaks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/king12.jpg

take out hard drive,
take out the sata power, data cables,

which are plugged into small case pcb usb to sata board .

degsie · 06-05-2014 8:26am

GarIT wrote: »

No, the adaptor could completely fry the board because of the massive voltage difference. It is highly unlikely that a new adaptor would fix anything.

Using a lower voltage adapter would be highly unlikely to cause your circuit board to 'fry', rather it will lead to intermittent behavior. Using a higher voltage would be a real problem however.

So a replacement adapter will probably work IF it matches the original specs EXACTLY!

riclad · 06-05-2014 9:16am

BOARDS are usually fried ,damaged by higher voltages,not lower voltage
maybe buy another power unit on ebay,
or a 3.5inch powered caddy, with its own power supply.
make sure voltage ampage identical,to original unit.
if you buy another power unit.

royster999 · 06-05-2014 9:17am

I tried a cable the exact same spec. Slight improvement in that the drive seems to make more noise as before and is visible in My computer and Disk Management, (tried changing the drive path, no luck).

However, I still cannot access the drive. When I click to open it, the drive makes a noise 6-7 times as if struggling in trying to open/start, then an I/O device error popup is thrown.

I'l open it up later this evening after work and study the link above.

riclad · 06-05-2014 9:34am

try start menu, control panel, administration, storage, drives , partition s.
do you see it there .

royster999 · 08-05-2014 9:44pm

riclad wrote: »

YOU,D have to put the hardrive in a caddy to test it.
inside case theres a small usb to sata board ,
coonnects to hd thru sata power. data , cables.
that could be damaged,
and the hardisk could be fine.

http://i.testfreaks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/king12.jpg

take out hard drive,
take out the sata power, data cables,

which are plugged into small case pcb usb to sata board .

Something like this?
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/3-5-SATA-to-USB-HD-Hard-Disk-Drive-Enclosure-Caddy-Case-/250748745747?pt=UK_Collectables_HardDriveEnclosures_RL&hash=item3a61ca3813

riclad · 08-05-2014 10:14pm

you can connect drive to a pc,or use a caddy drive enclosure.

IF caddy is metal ,put plastic tape on the drive pcb,underside of drive.
to stop it shorting , or short circuits on the pcb .

Yeah ,you can get cheap caddys on ebay 3.5 ,inch, as in above link.

Yes something like that,
must have external power if drive is 3.5inch,drive .

royster999 · 08-05-2014 10:51pm

riclad wrote: »

try start menu, control panel, administration, storage, drives , partition s.
do you see it there .

It states that there is no space free. There was 30GB free.
It also does not show the type of disk type. It should be FAT.
See attached..

There is also some messages in the Event Viewer once disk is connected:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7
Date:  08/05/2014
Time:  22:48:04
User:  N/A
Computer: QWERTY-19C585FA
Description:
The device, \Device\Harddisk1\D, has a bad block.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at [URL]http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp[/URL].
Data:
0000: 03 00 68 00 01 00 b6 00   ..h...&#182;.
0008: 00 00 00 00 07 00 04 c0   .......&#192;
0010: 00 01 00 00 9c 00 00 c0   ....&#339;..&#192;
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 ce 04 00 00 00 00 00   .&#206;......
0028: 0d da 01 00 00 00 00 00   .&#218;......
0030: ff ff ff ff 01 00 00 00   &#255;&#255;&#255;&#255;....
0038: 40 00 00 84 02 00 00 00   @..&#8222;....
0040: 00 20 0a 12 40 03 20 40   . ..@. @
0048: 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00   ........
0050: 00 00 00 00 d8 e9 e4 86   ....&#216;&#233;&#228;&#8224;
0058: 00 00 00 00 70 50 08 86   ....pP.&#8224;
0060: 00 00 00 00 67 02 00 00   ....g...
0068: 28 00 00 00 02 67 00 00   (....g..
0070: 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0078: f0 00 03 00 00 00 00 0a   &#240;.......
0080: 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00   ........
0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........

Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 51
Date:  08/05/2014
Time:  22:48:07
User:  N/A
Computer: QWERTY-19C585FA
Description:
An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk1\D during a paging operation.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at [URL]http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp[/URL].
Data:
0000: 03 00 68 00 01 00 b6 00   ..h...&#182;.
0008: 00 00 00 00 33 00 04 80   ....3..&#8364;
0010: 2d 01 00 00 00 00 00 00   -.......
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 ce 04 00 00 00 00 00   .&#206;......
0028: e9 da 01 00 00 00 00 00   &#233;&#218;......
0030: ff ff ff ff 03 00 00 00   &#255;&#255;&#255;&#255;....
0038: 40 00 00 84 02 00 00 00   @..&#8222;....
0040: 00 20 0a 12 40 03 20 40   . ..@. @
0048: 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00   ........
0050: 00 00 00 00 d8 e9 e4 86   ....&#216;&#233;&#228;&#8224;
0058: 00 00 00 00 70 50 08 86   ....pP.&#8224;
0060: 00 00 00 00 67 02 00 00   ....g...
0068: 28 00 00 00 02 67 00 00   (....g..
0070: 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0078: f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 0a   &#240;.......
0080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........

It looks the format of disk is corrupted??

I opened the drive and there seemed to be no damage.

degsie · 08-05-2014 10:57pm

Open a command prompt and run 'chkdsk k: /r' to repair the disk. It can take some time.

royster999 · 08-05-2014 10:58pm

I assume all the data is lost ?

degsie · 08-05-2014 11:00pm

royster999 wrote: »

I assume all the data is lost ?

Not necessarily, might be just corruption to the FAT table on the drive.

riclad · 09-05-2014 11:37am

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/285339-32-repair-data-loss

Nevermind, I was able to fix it. In case anyone else experiences this, I just went to a command prompt and typed: chkdsk e: /f

this should recover the fat file ,
file allocation table.
if that does,nt work try this,

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

TestDisk can
Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
Fix FAT tables
Rebuild NTFS boot sector
Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
Fix MFT using MFT mirror
Locate ext2/ext3/ext4 Backup SuperBlock
Undelete files from FAT, exFAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem
Copy files from deleted FAT, exFAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3/ext4 partitions.

royster999 · 09-05-2014 11:39am

Cool Il try this over the weekend and let ye know.

riclad · 09-05-2014 12:01pm

Fix partition table, recover deleted partition

Rebuild /FAT32 boot sector
Fix FAT tables

you may need to use one of these commands if you use testdisk.

royster999 · 11-05-2014 11:06pm

I used TestDisk utility and it reported no bootable partition:

Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63 Current partition structure:      Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors   1 P FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121600 254 63 1953520002 [Elements] No partition is bootable  *=Primary bootable  P=Primary  L=Logical  E=Extended  D=Deleted >[Quick Search]  [ Backup ]                             Try to locate partition

Can I make the one primary partition bootable?
Is this best practised behaviour?

bonzodog2 · 11-05-2014 11:12pm

There is no benefit to making the partition bootable on an ext HD unless you want to boot from it.

riclad · 12-05-2014 6:23am

No need to make the partition bootable,
Try fix fat32 boot sector in testdisk.

Did you try
chkdsk e: /f ,
or chkdsk k: /f

depending what the drive is called. k or e.

External partition is NOT meant to be bootable.

riclad · 12-05-2014 10:27am

Follow the advice here,
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

royster999 · 12-05-2014 10:35am

Windows chkdsk utility worked fine on the internal dries off latop.
However when run against the external hard drive all it did was recognise it was a FAT32 disk then threw an XP Windows chkdsk program failure.

This sometimes happens on XP when right clicking on an external drive.

I downloaded another chkdsk utility and got the same problem.

royster999 · 12-05-2014 10:37am

riclad wrote: »

Follow the advice here,
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

I followed those steps. It showed I had one partition and no errors.
How do I check and repair the FAT32 boot sector ?

degsie · 12-05-2014 11:21am

At this point it might be advisable to remove the external drive from it's enclosure and attach directly to a PC and attempt the recovery from there. There may be issues with the external enclosure electronics due to using the incorrect spec power adapter.

riclad · 12-05-2014 11:43am

degsie wrote: »

At this point it might be advisable to remove the external drive from it's enclosure and attach directly to a PC and attempt the recovery from there. There may be issues with the external enclosure electronics due to using the incorrect spec power adapter.

I think you need to follow the instructions from here,

in my previous link.

A partition is still missing: Deeper Search ,

ie start the recover process from Deeper search line, below .

Deeper Search will also search for FAT32 backup boot sector, NTFS backup boot superblock, ext2/ext3 backup superblock to detect more partitions,
it will scan each cylinder eg start here.

that fixes the boot sector.
follow the commands.
see what happens , See do,es it work.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

OR else use this,

http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

http://www.easeus.com/tutorial/drw-free-user-guide.html

use Partition recovery in easeus program,
read the user guide first.

easus is maybe easier for a non expert to use than Testdisk.

I usually just use recuva program to recover data on my own pc.

royster999 · 12-05-2014 12:58pm

Thanks for those links, will try again.
Think I did the deeper search but it came back with similar results, although I was weary at that stage..

Am also going to try and fix the chkdsk utility. Seen a program online which fixes shell32 anomalies.

riclad · 12-05-2014 1:14pm

You should be able to fix it using the above links.
Chkdsk may work after you have used testdisk ,
or the eausus program in my link.
Chkdsk itself will not fix recover fat32 file or fix the mbr ,
master boot record.

IF you want the recover the data,it,ll take maybe 30 minutes plus .
To use the programs in the links in my previous post.

royster999 · 13-05-2014 1:50pm

Some success last night. When I ran the List Files function in TestDisk, I could see my files listed.

When I ran the Deeper Search function it took ~30mins to analyse 500 / 121,000 blocks on the disk... So I will have to let it run for a couple of days.
It did find 2 block errors out of that 500.

I will kick it off again this evening.

riclad · 13-05-2014 4:02pm

I used recuva to recover 14gig on a 16gig card,
it would take about 50 minutes to do a full deep scan.
card showed up as 16gig sdcard unformatted in my computer.
it listed all files ,even files i deleted in the last 2 months,
so files were marked ,low quality , so i did,nt even try to recover them.
About 1gig was free space ,unused.

royster999 · 15-05-2014 8:27am

The deeper search complete and it showed I had issue with FAT32 boot sector:

TestDisk 7.0-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, April 2014
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors
1 P FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121599 254 63 1953503937 [Elements]

Boot sector
OK

Backup boot sector
OK

First sectors (Boot code and partition information) are not identical.
Second sectors (cluster information) are not identical.
Third sectors (Second part of boot code) are not identical.

A valid FAT Boot sector must be present in order to access
any data; even if the partition is not bootable.

I selected copy backup boot to primary boot sector as per steps, then rebuild BS.

Once this was complete I see the following:

Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors
 1 P FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121599 254 63 1953503937 [Elements]

Boot sector
OK

Backup boot sector
OK

Sectors are identical.

A valid FAT Boot sector must be present in order to access
any data; even if the partition is not bootable.

>[  Quit  ]  [  List  ]  [Rebuild BS]  [  Dump  ]  [Repair FAT]
                            Return to Advanced menu

So the Boot sector is still not valid.
When I try and connect to disk I get error that disk is not formatted.
If I reformat to NTFS through Winows option, will I lose all data ?

I also have option of trying the Repair FAT option though it says this should be run by an expert only.

riclad · 15-05-2014 9:08am

i think fat sector is fat32,

read this .

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced_FAT_Repair
first .
choose recover fat boot sector.

use list to check if it works.

if that does not work try ,
Rebuild a valid FAT boot sector
There is no backup boot sector for FAT12 and FAT16, so if the boot sector is damaged, it has to be recreated. The same thing applies for FAT32 if both the boot sector and its backup are corrupted. TestDisk can rebuild a FAT boot sector. Choose RebuildBS in the menu - it's safe and doesn't modify the disk. Use List to check the result and Write if you have been able to list your files.

if it works , use write , if your files are listed.

choose fat boot sector rebuild.

If FAT32:
It finds the root cluster;
Creates a boot sector with this information;
Asks the user if he wants to write this new boot sector or not.
The user can also list the files of the FAT partition.

Use List to check the result and Write if you have been able to list your files.

Post back here with results, or questions if you need more detailed advice.

SO you are trying to recover the fat32 sector or you may have to recreate it.

royster999 · 16-05-2014 9:15pm

Have problems when it trys to repair boot sector:

Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63
Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors
 1 P FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121599 254 63 1953503937 [Elements]

FAT : 32
cluster_size 64 0
reserved     32 0
total_sect   1953503937 0
fat32_length 238407 0
root_cluster 0 0
free_count   uninitialised 0
next_free    uninitialised 0
Extrapolated boot sector and current boot sector are different.
Warning: Extrapolated boot sector have incorrect values.

 [  Dump  ]  [  List  ]  [ Write  ] >[  Quit  ]

When I list files, there are not visible now so I do not want to write a new boot sector..

riclad · 16-05-2014 9:27pm

YOU could try use fat boot sector rebuild,
then use list,

if it works ,
write boot sector.
rebuild bs

I find it interesting,
i had 2 sd disks ,micro sd,
both would show up,
in my computer,
as DO you wish to format this drive.
i recovered all the data i wanted using recuva.

royster999 · 17-05-2014 2:07pm

Errors now when I try to rebuild Boot Sector Recovery:

Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors
 1 P FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121599 254 63 1953503937 [Elements]

Boot sector
fat32_boot_sector: Can't read boot sector.
Bad

Backup boot sector
fat32_boot_sector: Can't read backup boot sector.
Bad

Sectors are identical.

A valid FAT Boot sector must be present in order to access
any data; even if the partition is not bootable.



>[  Quit  ]  [Rebuild BS]  [  Dump  ]
                            Return to Advanced menu

Will try recuva program.

riclad · 17-05-2014 2:34pm

Try recuva,

Use advanced mode scan first.

i had a laptop that crashed ,long story short, I had 2 16gig cards nfts format,sdmicro cards.
IF it crashed when sdcard was connected ,card would show up as unformatted drive,
When i rebooted the laptop.

showed up as ,drive 16gig, not formatted in my computer.
I knew the data files where there.

i used recuva to get 90 per cent of files back.

I used deep scan .
Also search for music ,or avi , ie use search filter mode.
ITS very easy to use ,
Files that are marked ,low quality will probably be unrecoverable using recuva.
http://www.piriform.com/docs/recuva/using-recuva/wizard-mode/the-deep-scan-option

Some files about 50 files, showed up as 1.mp3, 2,mp3 etc ,3.mp3
or 1.avi , 2,avi ,
but they played fine ,and i could rename them after i recovered them.

First i used deep scan to recover mp3s,
than another scan to recover ebooks .or pdf files.

http://www.piriform.com/docs/recuva/using-recuva/wizard-mode/specifying-file-types

MY advice start recuva in advanced mode,
specify music or picture files to search for .

A deep scan can only recover files, not file names. Files found during a deep scan appear in the list view as [<number>].<extension>. For example: [00001].jpg
A deep scan can only identify the following file types:

NOTE a deep scan
will recover files but not the full filenames ,
eg mp3 1, mp3 3 .mp3. 4 etc

First run recuva in advanced mode.to run Recuva in Advanced mode:
1. Start Recuva. If the Wizard appears, click Do not show this Wizard on startup, and then click Cancel. Restart Recuva.
2. Specify the drives, file types, and optionally the file names you want Recuva to search for.

There,s more chance of recovering files with full filenames this way.

IF all else fails try deep scan mode.

royster999 · 17-05-2014 3:30pm

The hard drive is not showing in my computer now.
In event viewer there says to be a controller error. When I use analyse disk in Testdisk, it shows the hard as now having no partition but 2TB! It should only be 1TB:

Disk /dev/sdb - 2199 GB / 2047 GiB - 4294967295 sectors
Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors


Partition: Read error

The drive is not showing in Recuva so I cannot do anything with that.

Think I will create new partition with TestDisk. Looks like my data got lost with Rebuild BS.

riclad · 17-05-2014 3:49pm

TRY control panel, administration, storage, drives , partition s,
see what is says there .

I,VE never used testdisk,
used recuva, utimate boot disk etc

also photorec, made by same company as testdisk.

when I used recuva ,,
i formatted the drives,in ntfs file format
eg this rebuilt the boot sectors i presume ,gave me acess to my data .

Then used recuva deep scan to recover the files i wanted.

i,m NOT saying format the drive ,in your case.

recuva showed me all my files ,even files deleted 6 months ago,
AFTER i formatted the drives.

it worked twice for me .

I Think your drive is using fat32 file format.

riclad · 17-05-2014 4:00pm

http://www.pcinspector.de/?language=1

Here are some of the new features in PC INSPECTOR™ File Recovery 4.x:

Finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged

Recovers files with the original time and date stamp

it gets good reviews ,,its a free download.

royster999 · 17-05-2014 6:11pm

Its not recognising the disk to even begin searching.
See attached..

External Hard drive not showing

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