External Harddrive problem...HELP PLEASE!!

chat2joe

Hey guys,

I put together an external hard drive (3.5" internal in a special case which adapts it to USB 2) and it was working great.....until now. Before, when I plugged in it and powered it up XP would bring up an Auto-play window and scan through it and offer programs to run the relevant files etc. I always cam up in MyComputer.

Now though, I plug it in and that doesn't pop-up and it doesn't appear in MyComputer. XP does find it though as the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon comes up in the system tray.

In there it says: USB Mass Storage Device

Double click that and I get;

USB Mass Storage Device
Maxtor 6 B160P0 USB Device

It's a 160gb harddrive with a lot of stuff I really don't want to loose and I don't want to just fork out for a new one. No idea how to fix this. A mate set up the same harddrive setup, plugged that in and it worked perfect so it's not the laptop.

Any suggestions guys?!

commited

Have you tried plugging it into another PC?
Have you tried a different usb port?

Tom Dunne

I had the same problem with one I bought. It was showing up as my G:\ drive with nothing on it, panic!

I connected it to another laptop and it showed up correctly with all the directories and my music. Try the old favourites - reboot with it plugged in, reboot with it not plugged in. See how you get on.

If that doesn't work, try disk management in My Computer.

chat2joe

No, I haven't tried it in another computer. I thought that it wasn't my laptop as the other harddrive worked. I'll try that later this evening though.

I've tried all the rebooting and plugging in and out..endless combinations! No joy.

I also tried the disk management approach but it didn't come up as a disk in there at all. I've no idea why, it doesn't seem to reckognise it as a drive anymore.

Karoma

it is recognising it-just not assigning it a drive letter from what you say: have you connected to a network since you first started using it? Added other HDD (!sounds like it..)?
Shut down the computer (No standy/hibernate,etc.)
Plug it in
Boot up the computer
Open each drive in My Computer.. find the drive under another name?

Failing this: XP System Restore (It'll undo any OS/Config changes - i.e. Your files will be safe) back to when it was working OK..

chat2joe

Yeah I connect to the internet through a network. No it doesn't come up under another drive - the only drives that are there is my C:/ and a CD drive. Might chance that XP restore thing (if I can find it) but I don't see why it would work grand for my flatmates harddrive though.

Karoma

hmmm.and does your HDD work OK with his computer?

Start -> All Program -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore

chat2joe

mmm.and does your HDD work OK with his computer?

that i was meant to check this evening!! I'll check in the morning! Thanks

bpmurray

What happened to my HD was that the volume label and partition table were corrupted. I used DFSEE shareware to recreate these, and all was hunky-dory again. If nothing else, you could use DFSEE to check if the disk really is corrupted.

SickBoy

Try disk management. Right click My Computer and click Manage then click on Disk Management. It might be just a matter of right clicking the volume and clicking "change drive letter and paths" and setting a drive letter...