Guest Ridders Posted August 8, 2007 Posted August 8, 2007 Hello... I have been using an external hard drive (250GB) to back up my work on a day-to-day basis. A couple of days ago I started my computer up as per normal but my External Hard drive was not shown in My Computer. I checked out the status through disk manager and it is now shown as 'Unallococated' with no drive letter. This has all my important documents on it and I really need to find out how I can get access to the documents and make the drive useable again. Any help is greatly appreciated. Many thanks, Ridders
Guest GHalleck Posted August 8, 2007 Posted August 8, 2007 Re: Unallocated External Hard Drive Ridders wrote: > Hello... > > I have been using an external hard drive (250GB) to back up my work on a > day-to-day basis. > > A couple of days ago I started my computer up as per normal but my External > Hard drive was not shown in My Computer. I checked out the status through > disk manager and it is now shown as 'Unallococated' with no drive letter. > > This has all my important documents on it and I really need to find out how > I can get access to the documents and make the drive useable again. > > Any help is greatly appreciated. > > Many thanks, Ridders By definition, having a "backup" implies that there are at least two copies in existence, viz., a "source" and a "copy". Once a copy has been made and the source is deleted, then there is really no "backup". Keep this in mind as it is the basis for having a good backup policy. Anyway, what type of external hard drive is it --- USB, Firewire or SATA? Tried any of the other options? Tested it on another computer? Tried a different external enclosure or hookup? Should these attempts fail, then download a recovery application but be prepared to use a professional outfit and pay the money for retrieval of the important files.
Guest Ridders Posted August 8, 2007 Posted August 8, 2007 Re: Unallocated External Hard Drive "GHalleck" wrote: > > Ridders wrote: > > > Hello... > > > > I have been using an external hard drive (250GB) to back up my work on a > > day-to-day basis. > > > > A couple of days ago I started my computer up as per normal but my External > > Hard drive was not shown in My Computer. I checked out the status through > > disk manager and it is now shown as 'Unallococated' with no drive letter. > > > > This has all my important documents on it and I really need to find out how > > I can get access to the documents and make the drive useable again. > > > > Any help is greatly appreciated. > > > > Many thanks, Ridders > > By definition, having a "backup" implies that there are at least two > copies in existence, viz., a "source" and a "copy". Once a copy has > been made and the source is deleted, then there is really no "backup". > Keep this in mind as it is the basis for having a good backup policy. > > Anyway, what type of external hard drive is it --- USB, Firewire or > SATA? Tried any of the other options? Tested it on another computer? > Tried a different external enclosure or hookup? Should these attempts > fail, then download a recovery application but be prepared to use a > professional outfit and pay the money for retrieval of the important > files. > Hello... Thanks for your reply. I understand where you're coming from in relation to the true nature of a backup and in essence, I guess this means I simply 'held larger files on an external drive' as opposed to back up in the true sense of the word. I've connected the drive other computers and it's the same story, no showing in My Computer. I've downloaded testdisk.exe and run this...this shows that the files are on the drive, but I have no way of accessing them. It is a USB connection (which is the only connection option) and as mentioned previously, has been faultless until recently. Is there no way of getting this drive into an 'allocated' state? If I add a partition, will the files on the drive be transferred to the partition, or simply lost? Your help is much appreciated. Regards, Ridders
Guest Anna Posted August 8, 2007 Posted August 8, 2007 Re: Unallocated External Hard Drive >> Ridders wrote: >> >> > Hello... >> > >> > I have been using an external hard drive (250GB) to back up my work on >> > a >> > day-to-day basis. >> > >> > A couple of days ago I started my computer up as per normal but my >> > External >> > Hard drive was not shown in My Computer. I checked out the status >> > through >> > disk manager and it is now shown as 'Unallococated' with no drive >> > letter. >> > >> > This has all my important documents on it and I really need to find out >> > how >> > I can get access to the documents and make the drive useable again. >> > >> > Any help is greatly appreciated. >> > >> > Many thanks, Ridders >> >> By definition, having a "backup" implies that there are at least two >> copies in existence, viz., a "source" and a "copy". Once a copy has >> been made and the source is deleted, then there is really no "backup". >> Keep this in mind as it is the basis for having a good backup policy. >> >> Anyway, what type of external hard drive is it --- USB, Firewire or >> SATA? Tried any of the other options? Tested it on another computer? >> Tried a different external enclosure or hookup? Should these attempts >> fail, then download a recovery application but be prepared to use a >> professional outfit and pay the money for retrieval of the important >> files. "Ridders" <Ridders@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:7DF4AE97-9E2D-4B7D-952E-E3495427F11A@microsoft.com... > Hello... > > Thanks for your reply. I understand where you're coming from in relation > to > the true nature of a backup and in essence, I guess this means I simply > 'held > larger files on an external drive' as opposed to back up in the true sense > of > the word. > > I've connected the drive other computers and it's the same story, no > showing > in My Computer. > > I've downloaded testdisk.exe and run this...this shows that the files are > on > the drive, but I have no way of accessing them. It is a USB connection > (which > is the only connection option) and as mentioned previously, has been > faultless until recently. > > Is there no way of getting this drive into an 'allocated' state? If I add > a > partition, will the files on the drive be transferred to the partition, or > simply lost? > > Your help is much appreciated. > > Regards, > > Ridders Ridders: First of all, do you have any clue whatsoever what might have caused this problem? Was your system operating properly - including your USB external HDD - and then this happened "out of the blue"? Did you make any hardware/software changes, modifications just before this problem began? I know you said that external HDD had been operating "faultless until recently". I assume you mean until this problem arose, right? At this point it probably would be best if you could remove the HDD from its enclosure and install it as a internal secondary HDD in your machine and see if the data on the drive could be accessed through that means. If you're working with a commercial USB unit (not an enclosure that you purchased and then installed a HDD in the enclosure) this could be difficult. Needless to say by doing so it would surely void the warranty if that's any consideration at this point. But if you could install the disk as a secondary drive in your PC, you might (hopefully) access its data that way. This assumes, of course, that the problem is a defective USB enclosure (more common than you might think) and not with the HDD itself. Download the HDD diagnostic utility from the manufacturer of the disk and test it out. I know you've used that testdisk program, but use the diagnostic from the disk's manufacturer anyway. If the disk is non-defective and its data is potentially accessible you just might be able to access it while it's connected as an internal secondary HDD in your system. You could also consider using one or more of the myriad "data recovery programs" available. As a last resort, you might have to use a commercial data recovery service as GHalleck has indicated. Needless to say an expensive proposition. Anna
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