Samsung m3 500gb external drive not showing in my computer

[john-the-plotter]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2151[/ATTACH]

[john-the-plotter]

Hi ken

I had previously downloaded seatools for windows a few weeks back, but it doesn't seem to work.

I thought maybe the download was not complete so I uninstalled it and did the download again.

 

When I run seatools it comes up saying scsi: scanning for supported drives please wait.

I does nothing except lock up the system, and I am forced to reboot the pc

[KenB]

From your image post #26 your F: drive is showing - but the size is 0 ....... I assume from this it cannot be read.

 

Re: Seatools - The problem you are experiencing is odd. I have advised others to use this recently - with no problems.

You could try the DOS version.

This would need to be burned to CD.

 

There is an explanation on the website how to use it.

 

I can find other Windows based software if you prefer.

[john-the-plotter]

I have burnt the seatools program to cd, rebooted and it runs. After a few seconds it gives the message no hard drives found. This is the same with or without the external hard drive attached. Then I tried seatools.exe /L and just the same. It is just not seeing any drives 500gb internal drive or 500gb external drive.

 

The only thing I can add is that the original PC set up was 2 x 80gb hard drives set up as raid. and now it is just 1 x 500gb hard drive.

Could the raid set up have some bearing on it. I don't know anything about raid.

[KenB]

. I don't know anything about raid.

I don't know too much either :)

I doubt that it would affect the Seatools disk - strange.

 

Hitachi do a similar one - click here

Click on "Downloads" on the left side and then on HGST Windows Drive Fitness Test

There is a User Guide on this page too.

 

I can understand Seatools not finding your problem drive but it should have located your Primary Drive ........... ???

Try the Hitachi one.

[john-the-plotter]

Hi Ken

Tried the WDT and still no joy. I am now quite convinced that the raid set up may be the problem. when I go into the raid set up it only shows 81964mb drive and not my 500gb drive.

I need to ask questions about removing raid, but which section do I ask it in please.

[KenB]

but which section do I ask it in please.

Keep it here John.

 

I will ask one of our moderators who knows more than I do about Raid to see if he has any ideas.

[john-the-plotter]

I have a question about Raid. When I bought my pc (Mesh) I had it fitted with two 80gb hard drives which were set up on promise raid. 1 + 0 stripe

Since then I have had to replace one of the drives and bought a 500gb drive.

Not understanding raid, I did not know that raid would not work with two drives of differant capacities.

I had at one stage to relaod windows XP and set it up with the raid driver. I now realise that it only read the 80gb drive and not the 500gb drive, so it shows the capacity as 81964 and drive test programs will not read the 500gb drive even though it works ok.

The 80gb drive is currantly disconnected.

What I want to do is to remove raid , but not loose anything on my 500gb hard drive. how do I do this. I cannot access my external drive to back anything up.

Once I have removed raid, can I reconnect the 80gb drive as well as the 500gb and use that as a spare drive.

Also would this raid problem also cause the DVD drive to not function.

 

Thanks Ken for all your help, Much appreciated.

[KenB]

Hi John

 

Synapse ( Moderator ) is going to get to you as soon as he can.

[Synapse]

Hi John,

 

I have a question about Raid. When I bought my pc (Mesh) I had it fitted with two 80gb hard drives which were set up on promise raid. 1 + 0 stripe

Since then I have had to replace one of the drives and bought a 500gb drive.

Not understanding raid, I did not know that raid would not work with two drives of differant capacities.

I had at one stage to relaod windows XP and set it up with the raid driver. I now realise that it only read the 80gb drive and not the 500gb drive, so it shows the capacity as 81964 and drive test programs will not read the 500gb drive even though it works ok.

The 80gb drive is currantly disconnected.

What I want to do is to remove raid , but not loose anything on my 500gb hard drive. how do I do this. I cannot access my external drive to back anything up.

Once I have removed raid, can I reconnect the 80gb drive as well as the 500gb and use that as a spare drive.

Also would this raid problem also cause the DVD drive to not function.

 

You have me a little confused here. Which drive currently has your OS installed, is it the 500GB or 80GB drive?

 

I ask because of this

 

I had at one stage to relaod windows XP and set it up with the raid driver. I now realise that it only read the 80gb drive and not the 500gb drive

 

Plus your screenshots show the 80GB capacity.

 

You have also mentioned not losing any data from the 500GB drive. I don´t get how you have any data stored on that drive, can you explain please.

 

If say, hypothetically, you had the 2 drives in an array, striped that is, you can´t split them and then retrieve the data, they would need backing up before splitting.

 

I do not think the RAID controller will cause issues with your DVD drive, it would be useful to know the motherboard make and model so I can have a read of the manual and have a bit of a think.

[john-the-plotter]

When I first installed the 500gb hard drive, I think the os was on the 80gb drive. Since then I have installed a fresh copy of windows on the 500gb drive and disconnected the 80gb drive

Motherboard is Asus A8V deluxe and Bios is original and has not been upgraded.[ATTACH=CONFIG]2154[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2155[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]2156[/ATTACH]

 

You will see that all the three drives say location 0. Should they be ?

[KenB]

You will see that all the three drives say location 0. Should they be ?

 

I explained this in post #20

Synapse may be able to explain it a little better.

[john-the-plotter]

Sorry guys but I have been giving you wrong information.

Upon opening the case today I discovered that it was the 80gb drive that is connected and not the 500gb drive.

When I have a little more time, I will get back to you with more information.

[Synapse]

Hi John,

 

I have had a read of the motherboard manual and can see the description of the RAID controllers and the hard drive connectors. The manual says that if you have a drive connected to a RAID controller, as a single drive, it will behave as a single drive, as long as it is set to IDE in the settings. The settings may be in the BIOS itself, or the RAID controller settings, that will be in the BIOS too, under RAID controller. So, there is no problem with running a single drive on a RAID controller.

 

What we need to know is what drive you have connected to what connector on the motherboard, and could do with knowing if you have IDE or SATA drives as your board supports both.

 

When you have that info, can you show us what you have in Windows, ie which drives are showing, Disk Management screenshot will probably do for now.

[john-the-plotter]

I have now sorted out my disk drives. I am now operating on only 1 disc drive the 500gb drive and I have disconnected the 80gb drive, having transferred all the files I wanted across. It is partitioned as C: with just windows Xp on it and D: with everything else.

 

I am still back to the original problem that disk management still doesn't see the Samsung External drive.

The hard drive is Sata and connected to the Sata plug; nothing is connected to Sata 2.

Raid recognises it a array 1 500gb disk.

 

Could the usb hard drive have gone corrupt, and if so how do I reformat it.

Also, when I have the usb drive plugged it, it takes about 3 or 4 times as long to boot up. Normal boot up is less then 2 minutes without the usb drive plugged in.[ATTACH=CONFIG]2160[/ATTACH]

[john-the-plotter]

Tried to get a screen print of disk management,but it only comes up with a blank print ?

Done the usual print scrn key then paint and saved as a jpeg to both desktop and drive d; and both just save a blank screen .

 

You can see from my previous post that it was working. I tried clearing out the clipboard but that didn't help.

[KenB]

Also, when I have..............it takes about 3 or 4 times as long to boot up

This could be a setting in the BIOS.

If the Boot Order is set to look at external devices first the system will scan the External Drive looking for an Operating System.

 

Go into the BIOS and look for Boot / Boot Order / Boot Sequence or similar.

If External HDD is first in the order move it down below your Primary Hard Drive.

It is normal to have the DVD CDROM first in the order.

The drive with the OS on it should be next.

 

==============

I will leave synapse to advise further re the rest of your question :)

[john-the-plotter]

Bios is set to F: dvd drive A: floppy and c: hard drive

External drive does not show in bios

 

What I have discovered is that the external drive has gone to fat, but as it wont show up in disk management , I cant find out how to re format it.

[Synapse]

What I have discovered is that the external drive has gone to fat, but as it wont show up in disk management , I cant find out how to re format it.

 

After some thinking and Googling I have a theory that either the external drive is faulty, or possibly the USB interface that is built in to the external drive. The description of the drive showing as FAT brings back memories of external drive issues, and looking at the thread as a whole it almost confirms my thoughts.

 

The only real way around it that I can see is to return the drive as a warranty claim, or if out of warranty, take it out of the external case and connect internally to check it that way.