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Author Topic: External Western Digital Hard drive not being recognized  (Read 3479 times)

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bigal50

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    External Western Digital Hard drive not being recognized
    « on: February 05, 2017, 08:43:37 PM »
    I have a Dell Pentium Dual Core computer with Windows 10 Pro I attached a Western Digital External Hard drive that was working just fine but a few days ago all power went out in my room and my PC with attached external HD went out as well. When I restarted my PC everything seen fine...except now my external HD is not being recognized. Ir starts up just fine I can hear it I can see the lights come on but I don't see it with a drive letter. What should  do ????


    bigal50

    DaveLembke



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    Re: External Western Digital Hard drive not being recognized
    « Reply #1 on: February 06, 2017, 11:13:32 AM »
    Under Disk Management in the computer look there to see if its mounted but shows up as not formatted or not partitioned. It might be there but no drive letter assigned. If you see it there DO NOT PARTITION OR FORMAT IT... instead you will need to run software to scan this drive and correct for damaged file tables.

     If the drive is not detected there then the drive may be damaged. If under warranty you could return the drive for a replacement but all data would be gone and potentially in the hands of whoever gets your dead drive. Or you can open the enclosure and mount the drive as a slave drive into a desktop computer and maybe then see it in disk management to work on its data recovery or if its the USB to SATA daughter board that blew on the external enclosure through this process of power loss, then your drive might mount up and get a drive letter as a 2nd hard drive in the computer in which all data would be accessible without a data recovery process needed.

    bigal50

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      Re: External Western Digital Hard drive not being recognized
      « Reply #2 on: February 07, 2017, 10:37:46 AM »
      Thanks for the info.....but under disk management I see,  "  Disk one - unknown , Not initialized  "   !?!?!?!?!?!?!?



      bigal50

      bigal50

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        Re: External Western Digital Hard drive not being recognized
        « Reply #3 on: February 07, 2017, 10:45:12 AM »
        Just to add. I checked the external disk under Device manager and I see that's its working properly has the lastest device drivers the drive is not clicking or whinning.  Its as if the drive is ok (?) i just cant access the data. How is it possible that when the power went out only the data dissapeared ???? but the  drive is good ?????????


        bigal50

        Salmon Trout

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        Re: External Western Digital Hard drive not being recognized
        « Reply #4 on: February 07, 2017, 12:13:08 PM »
        How is it possible that when the power went out only the data dissapeared ???? but the  drive is good ?????????
        You don't know that the drive is good, just that it is not making any strange sounds. Have you tried initializing it?

        patio

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        Re: External Western Digital Hard drive not being recognized
        « Reply #5 on: February 07, 2017, 12:41:05 PM »
        Rite clik in Disk Management...initialise...then format NTFS...yer done.
        " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

        bigal50

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          Re: External Western Digital Hard drive not being recognized
          « Reply #6 on: February 07, 2017, 04:54:40 PM »
          Why would I format it !?!!? I did mention my backed up date was on this external hard drive?!?