Computer Hope
Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: tinderbox22 on March 31, 2008, 09:26:50 PM
-
I have a Maxtor internal HDD inside an enclosure. It powers on and begins to read but it sounds like it quits after a few seconds. the power still works, but my PC won't recognize it as a disk. It sees that there is a USB storage device hooked up but won't read the drive. it's as if the drive isn't there at all.
Any ideas??? i have lots of data on this HDD and would love to save it!
thank you for your help!
tinder
-
Welcome to the CH forums.
Can't quite see if we're talking laptop/notebook/desktop/Win.3.1/Win.98/Win.ME/XP/Vista.
Please read this (http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,33586.html)..
-
sorry about that.. i didn't include that info because i'm pretty sure it's not a system issue, but a hard drive issue.
the HDD does not work with either my pc or mac.. right now i'm trying to hook it up via USB to my macbook laptop (2.0ghz Intel Core 2 Duo; 2.5GB RAM) running ONLY Windows Vista.. it also does not work when hooked up to my Dell dimension 4600 PC (Intel 2.6ghz; 2GB RAM) running Windows XP.
no error message occurs. i believe the hard drive just isn't being read at all. It's in an enclosure, so i've considered taking the HDD out of the enclosure and purchasing a USB to IDE adaptor, hooking it up directly to my laptop and seeing if that works...
any thoughts/help/opinions would be appreciated.. thank you!
-
Check it out with the diagnostic tool available from the Seagate website here (http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/)..
Good luck
-
1. Which file system was the drive formatted with? Which operating system was the last one to successfully access and read the drive?
2. USB storage device
It sees that there is a USB storage device hooked up but won't read the drive. it's as if the drive isn't there at all.
What does "Device Management" show for the device under Windows XP. Does it say the device is functioning properly or does it show an error number/message?
Does Windows XP assign a drive letter to the USB storage device?
Does the USB storage device show up under Windows XP "Disk Management". What does it say?
-
the storage device does show up under Windows XP and Vista disk mgmt. It knows it's a drive with 234GB capacity, but the drive name is different. it seems as if it's not reading the partition. Maybe it's not going past the first couple of blocks of data to get to the right partition. There is NO drive letter assigned, but the device is "Working properly." No error messages in disk mgmt. I believe the drive is in the NTFS format as it was done with an XP PC. The last computer to attempt to read the drive was also XP. I've also tried with Vista and OS-X.
I will try that tool and see if that helps.
-
1. Assign Drive Letter. From the Windows XP "Disk Management" utility, assign a drive letter to the desired partition(s)/volume(s) on the USB storage device. You're looking for option to "Change Drive Letters and Paths".
For instructions reference USB flash drive recognised but doesn't show up in My Computer (http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/USBProblems2.htm#recognised)
Yes, I know your disk is not a "flash" drive.
2. Drive Name is Different. Not sure what you mean. Could you give an example? Such as "says this" but I "expected this".
-
The drive name now shows up as 7Y250PO USB Device instead of the name I assigned to it when I first started using it over a year ago. I am unable to assign a drive letter to it as that is not an option for me. I can't even see the partitions. Of course I'm using Vista now and don't currently have access to my XP machine. I will reference those flash drive instructions this morning and see if that works.
thank you for your help!
-
If it was used on a MAC you can't expect Windows to treat it fairyl...how exactly is it being reported in Disk Management ? ?
Right click My Computer...select Manage and then Disk Management...right click the drive and post the results here.
-
ok i just had a chance to do this. It's not showing up in Disk Management as a drive. In fact, when I goto device manager and click the properties for the drive, under the Volume tab - i click Populate - and nothing shows up. It says next to "status" = "Unreadable." Capacity = 0MB.
I also tried Seatools and the drive was only able to perform the Short Generic and Long Generic tests, both of which it failed.
-
I suspect it's still formatted MAC...there are utilities free that will undo this.
That or the drive itself has failed.
-
the storage device does show up under Windows XP and Vista disk mgmt. It knows it's a drive with 234GB capacity, but the drive name is different. it seems as if it's not reading the partition. Maybe it's not going past the first couple of blocks of data to get to the right partition. There is NO drive letter assigned, but the device is "Working properly." No error messages in disk mgmt. I believe the drive is in the NTFS format as it was done with an XP PC. The last computer to attempt to read the drive was also XP. I've also tried with Vista and OS-X.
The drive name now shows up as 7Y250PO USB Device instead of the name I assigned to it when I first started using it over a year ago. I am unable to assign a drive letter to it as that is not an option for me. I can't even see the partitions. Of course I'm using Vista now and don't currently have access to my XP machine. I will reference those flash drive instructions this morning and see if that works.
ok i just had a chance to do this. It's not showing up in Disk Management as a drive. In fact, when I goto device manager and click the properties for the drive, under the Volume tab - i click Populate - and nothing shows up. It says next to "status" = "Unreadable." Capacity = 0MB.
I'm confused as to how your Windows XP system (I'm not familiar with Vista) sees the problem storage device. Does it show up as a "disk" under Disk Management? For example, disk0, disk1, disk2...
If it does, are you saying it's not possible to assign drive letter (http://helpdesk.centre.edu/view.php?type=doc&id=56)? Does the "Change Drive Letter and Paths" option not appear at all or is it just grayed out?