PC does not recognise external hard drives

[gregmiller]

HELP. My external 160GB USB hard drive is not being recognised. I unplugged it from the PC to copy info to my laptop, when I re-connected it, it no longer shows under My Computer. If I go into Sytem, devices, it is shown as "this device is working properly!!"

 

I'm using a Dell Dimension DM051, Pentium 4 3Ghz, with IGb Ram.

 

Do I have to follow a certain procedure to re-connect?

[hardware_dave]

Does it work on another PC ?

 

Dave

[gregmiller]

Hi Dave,

 

No, it comes into life, laptop and PC state "found new hardware" and then "installed ready to use". It shows in system devices under disk drives as "WDC WD20 00JB-00GVA0 - USB device" and in USB Controllers as "USB Mass Storage Device". When expanding these, they both state that device is working properly. Using the troubleshoot does not help. However, when going into Device properties, it does not show anything on nthe Volume page, just blank. When I click on "populate" it then shows the following:

 

Disk - Disk 5

Type- Unknown

Status - Unreadable

Partition Type - Not applicable

Capacity - 0 mb

Unallocated - 0 mb

Reserved space - 0 mb

 

Any ideas??

[hardware_dave]

Sounds like the partition table is gone, did you have anything important on the drive ?

 

If not just go into disk managment and create a partition.

 

Dave

[lap1ngtong]

Hello guys! I am having a similar problem with an external HD (Maxtor 3200 500gb) but when I connect it and try to access it, it tells me the drive needs formatting!! which I dont want to do as there is stuff I require on there!!

 

is there any hope?

 

also, I have a S-ATA drive connected, which I cannot access..it tells me it is healthy etc on pc boot up, it is in the device manager telling me it is working properly!!

 

any clues??

 

Cheers in advance!

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Greg

 

Did you format this drive when you got it?

 

From this;

Disk - Disk 5

Type- Unknown

Status - Unreadable

Partition Type - Not applicable

Capacity - 0 mb

Unallocated - 0 mb

Reserved space - 0 mb

 

It appears, as Dave said, to contain no partition/s

 

A physical USB hard disk drive is not the same as some kind of 2GB memory stick.

 

Lap1ong

You have hijacked this thread and really should make a new post with regard to your problem, otherwise posted answers can become muddled.