BleepingComputer.com: External HardDrive RAW Problem

Hi, my external hard-drive recently stopped working. It started acting as if it was being unplugged and plugged back in quickly. Then Vista stopped recognising it.

It says it's RAW and needs formatting, however my Satellite box which can read USB devices can still see the whole file structure fine...

Any ideas on how to get Vista to see it again?

Cheers, Dan.

Go to this Microsoft site. You can choose to either "Fix it for me", or "Let me fix it myself".

If you choose the Let me fix it myself option you need to be aware that this involves editing the registry. For this reason I would suggest that you backup your registry before trying this repair.

Backup Your Registry with ERUNT

• Please use the following link and scroll down to ERUNT and download it.
  http://aumha.org/freeware/freeware.php
  
• For version with the Installer:
  Use the setup program to install ERUNT on your computer
  
• For the zipped version:
  Unzip all the files into a folder of your choice.

Click Erunt.exe to backup your registry to the folder of your choice.

Note: to restore your registry, go to the folder and start ERDNT.exe

Thanks for the help.

I tried that but still nothing.

Yesterday I plugged it into a friend's Mac and that found it after a short while and could see all the files and the file structure intact.

It's obviously Windows not being happy but I don't know why...

Thanks again.

Try this.

Start> Run, type in mmc devmgmt.msc and click OK. When the Device Manager opens right click on Computer> click on Scan for hardware changes.

Thanks for the help.

I did that but still no luck... Tried uninstalling the driver but that didn't help either.

Update:

I've downloaded testdisk and it can find the partition, recognise it as NTFS and see the files. I've managed to copy some of the folders across using the program so I could just buy a new HD and copy the files across.

I'm very new to this stuff, I've tried a few things but Windows still doesn't recognise it.

Testdisk doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with the disk.
The boot sector is the same as the backup, there are no errors...

After one attempt, on restart the computer recognised the disk as NTFS and ran chkdsk on it, it repaired a few files but then crashed.

I'm still fiddling, if I sort it I'll let you know.

Cheers, Dan.

I don't think that your drive is faulty. I suspect that this is just a case of the USB port not recognizing the drive. This type of problem is much too common with Microsoft. By running the scan for hardware is a technique which usually can activate the port. Have you tried installing it in a different port?

Update: It keeps getting weirder.

Hopefully I'm close to fixing it.

After doing "something" in testdisk (could have been one of many tests), Windows would recognise that it was NTFS but wouldn't do anything else.

This did let me run chkdsk, once this was done the hard-drive autorun window popped up.
Clicked on browse folders but got Access denied.

The weird thing is that it's only the root G: that I can't access.
I have a dropbox folder on the G: drive and that can see it's folder.
If I type in G:\Gintis\ (a folder I know is on there) it pops up and everything is usable.

In My Computer no size or free space data is shown for the disk.
If I go into properties, tell it to index, then get Windows to populate the volumes it will show up the used and free space (until I go out and try it again).

I'm hoping you'll know of a quick solution that I've missed.

Cheers, Dan.

I would stop trying to figure out why windows won't use it properly. I would just use another PC to backup all the data, format it and try it on your PC to see if it works. Also could you see if your bios detects the drive? If it does then windows is messed up. If not your USB ports are most likely messed up.

I'll check the BIOS.

I would do that but haven' got another PC with the space to backup and can't afford a new HD yet.
The only other PC I had wouldn't recognise it either at first. Not tried it in XP yet though.

Thanks for all the help.

BIOS finds the HD.

XP can use it fine (dualboot on this machine)...

In My Computer (under Vista) the HD shows up as NTFS but no sizes are showing up.
I can access subfolders on my HD but not the root folder, (I can under XP).

It must be a simple setting somewhere in Vista but I can't fins anything in Properties.

Uhh maybe trying putting in the Vista install disk and find a repair option I know the XP install disk has this and it can fix some stupid problems and if that does not work.....re-install vista