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Author Topic: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD  (Read 3223 times)

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47jag

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    CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
    « on: July 20, 2010, 08:15:23 AM »
    I've just recently backed up a friend's laptop to a Maxtor USB external drive so that we could reload Windows XP. Now the external drive doesn't show up on the Start Menu. I've check the Seagate site and it looks like the drive has been 'goosed'. Is there any recovery?

    Art
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    Allan

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    Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
    « Reply #1 on: July 20, 2010, 08:30:24 AM »
    What do you mean it doesn't show on the Start Menu? Open Windows Explorer. Is the driver there?
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    47jag

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      Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
      « Reply #2 on: July 20, 2010, 08:47:41 AM »
      Allan

      If I right click the Start button and 'Explore' the drive is missing. If I go into Control panel/System/Device drivers it is listed under 'disk drives'. If I double cick on the drive it says it is working normally but if I then go to 'Volumes' all the fields are blank.

      Art
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      Allan

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      Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
      « Reply #3 on: July 20, 2010, 08:49:39 AM »
      Does it show up in Disk Management (Start-Run-diskmgmt.msc)? If so, does it show as available?
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      47jag

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        Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
        « Reply #4 on: July 20, 2010, 08:52:00 AM »
        Allan,

        It shows as 'Unallocated'

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        patio

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        Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
        « Reply #5 on: July 20, 2010, 08:54:05 AM »
        Then it was probably unplugged without using the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon...

        Unfortunately the end result of this most times is a total loss of data...

        You could try and run Recuva on it to see if anything is salvageable...
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        47jag

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          Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
          « Reply #6 on: July 20, 2010, 08:56:26 AM »
          No it remained connected all the time I was loading.

          Art
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          47jag

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            Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
            « Reply #7 on: July 20, 2010, 08:57:41 AM »
            I've downloaded Recuva but it can only 'see' drive C

            Art
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            Allan

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            Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
            « Reply #8 on: July 20, 2010, 09:10:07 AM »
            Yeah. Unfortunately "unallocated" means unformatted. I'm not sure what happened, but as far as your system is concerned the drive needs to be formatted (and of course if there IS anything on the drive, formatting will completely erase it).
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            Allan

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            Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
            « Reply #9 on: July 20, 2010, 09:10:55 AM »
            Quote from: patio on July 20, 2010, 08:54:05 AM
            Then it was probably unplugged without using the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon...

            Patio, I don't believe that would cause the drive to show up as "unallocated" - but I could be mistaken.
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            47jag

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              Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
              « Reply #10 on: July 20, 2010, 09:13:46 AM »
              AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

              My worst fears realised. Seagate did say that this could happen and then offered recovery software for $129.

              Art
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              Allan

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              Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
              « Reply #11 on: July 20, 2010, 09:15:00 AM »
              That's nice of them. Ask them if it will work if the system cannot see the drive and if you can get a refund if it doesn't work.
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              patio

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              Re: CAN'T SEE EXTERNAL DRIVE AFTER XP RELOAD
              « Reply #12 on: July 20, 2010, 09:18:30 AM »
              Quote from: Allan on July 20, 2010, 09:10:55 AM
              Patio, I don't believe that would cause the drive to show up as "unallocated" - but I could be mistaken.

              Usually it will show as "RAW" when this happens...however i did see this this year on a client's machine....and she had admitted to just unplugging it and moving it to another machine without even powering it down...i wasn't there so i cannot say with 100% accuracy...
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