Help! External Hard Drive is not recognized on computer anymore!!

[dwnsouth985]

Originally Posted by TurcoLoco

Online, I am a piece of software, offline in real life, I am very much a legacy hardware!

OK, all kidding aside, since you PM'ed me and disturbed my very much needed beauty sleep, let me tackle this from the beginning, ok?

- You have Windows 7 and Device Manager shows the device as "working OK" which typically means the onboard electronics checked out, drive and data condition can still be a suspect unless you take the drive out of the casing and connect it directly to the motherboard using a SATA/IDE for data and the applicable power connector.

- Since you are familiar with Device Manager (START > right-click on Computer > Manage > Storage > Disk Management), can you access Disk Management console to see if the drive is listed there as well? If so, what drive letter is assigned to it?

We'll go from there.

I see it on Device manager but not in Disk Management

[TurcoLoco]

If you are sure then,

- Windows sees the device connection because the electronics board inside the external drive case communicates with the operating system but either that board is partially malfunctioning so it fails to establish a connection to the hard drive hence Disk Management not showing it.

[ OR ]

- The board is fully functional but the hard drive inside the case is not functioning properly or at all.

Your best best is to open the external drive case and see if there is any humming, vibration coming from the drive. Also check for any kind of clicking/grinding sounds which would indicate a serious internal problem.

If the hard drive has absolutely no sound or vibration then the only way to be certain the drive is bad, would be to connect it directly to a working PC's main/motherboard and check.

[ OR ]

As mentioned before, you can take the drive out of the casing and take it to a local computer shop/tech savvy friend, who could check it for you, perhaps even for free.

PS. Check the USB cable connection at both ends (external drive end and PC end), to make sure it is firmly connected. If possible, connect the drive to another USB port on this machine to rule out couple of things.
Even better would be to connect it to another -known- working PC to double check.

Always start with the simplest, easiest and cheapest troubleshooting step and go from there AKA low tech before high tech.

[dwnsouth985]

Originally Posted by TurcoLoco

If you are sure then,

- Windows sees the device connection because the electronics board inside the external drive case communicates with the operating system but either that board is partially malfunctioning so it fails to establish a connection to the hard drive hence Disk Management not showing it.

[ OR ]

- The board is fully functional but the hard drive inside the case is not functioning properly or at all.

Your best best is to open the external drive case and see if there is any humming, vibration coming from the drive. Also check for any kind of clicking/grinding sounds which would indicate a serious internal problem.

If the hard drive has absolutely no sound or vibration then the only way to be certain the drive is bad, would be to connect it directly to a working PC's main/motherboard and check.

[ OR ]

As mentioned before, you can take the drive out of the casing and take it to a local computer shop/tech savvy friend, who could check it for you, perhaps even for free.

PS. Check the USB cable connection at both ends (external drive end and PC end), to make sure it is firmly connected. If possible, connect the drive to another USB port on this machine to rule out couple of things.
Even better would be to connect it to another -known- working PC to double check.

Always start with the simplest, easiest and cheapest troubleshooting step and go from there AKA low tech before high tech.

Thanks I do have the drive out of the case it does make run making noise not major grinding or clicking just the normal sounds it makes when it runs but after a while when its done it stops making noise...i am using an SATA adapter to try to make the connections.. I can try to do the connection to my mother board on a pc im no longer using if you can give me some pointers do's and donts..is there an open connection on the mother board or does something have to come off.. thanks for the help

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by dwnsouth985

Thanks I do have the drive out of the case it does make run making noise not major grinding or clicking just the normal sounds it makes when it runs but after a while when its done it stops making noise...i am using an SATA adapter to try to make the connections.. I can try to do the connection to my mother board on a pc im no longer using if you can give me some pointers do's and donts..is there an open connection on the mother board or does something have to come off.. thanks for the help

It is quite straightforward really, I wouldn't touch any of the existing devices using a SATA connection unless you do not have any spare SATA data cable or power cable connections available.

If that is the case and you have a SATA CD/DVD drive, you could temporarily use its connections. Make sure to power off the computer, disconnect the power cord from the back first. Then when you open the side panel, briefly touch the power supply (PSU) to get rid of any ESD buildup on your body before touching anything else, ok?

If the only SATA connection in the computer is for the current Hard Drive in use, then temporarily borrow its connection for this drive you will be troubleshooting. After you connect the test drive, fire up the computer and go in to BIOS settings to see if it sees the drive at all. If it does, that is a good sign. The data might be good or bad but at least you can ascertain to a degree that the drive is in working condition. Then you could either order one of those USB based external drive reader connectors or buy a separate SATA data cable and connect it as a secondary drive so your main hard drive with Windows is still the master and will be used as the boot drive. Then once in Windows, you can attempt to access the data on this drive which should appear as the next available drive letter (after all other drives that already had a drive letter assigned to them).