External Disk Not Recognized By Windows 7/8 And Is Now In RAW Format?
Jan 27, 2013
I recently backed up about 500gb of recent work onto an external drive so I could clean my PC inside and out. I gave it a clean install of windows 7 and when it comes time to get my work of my external, the drive cannot be recognized and requires a reformat.It was working perfectly fine and I surely did not format the drive into a RAW file system. I tried plugging into my laptop running win8 and still the very same issue. I plugged it into a mac running the lastest mac os 10 and I can browse all my folders and see the files but I can't move/copy or open them. But at least I know all is not lost.
My external HDD (A WD 2TB My Book) just up and quit on me while I was using it today. My computer was no longer recognizing it, and I could no longer access my files. My computer still acknowledges it under drivers however, and it claims all the drivers are up to date and that the device is working properly. I tried going into to Disk Management to see if I could do anything from there, but it isn't even recognized there. There is however a Disk 1 but it is unknown and not initialized. I'm assuming this is my external HDD since its the only external disk I've used on my computer. When I tried to initialize it, it failed due to an I/O device error although the error prompt didn't refer to any specific problem.
We had an external USB drive with tons of media files on it connected to computer A running Windows 7 Pro SP1. The drive was safely removed and connected to another computer that was running Windows XP Pro 2002 SP3. I was told that the drive was not recognized in XP and that it was disconnected (I cannot say for sure "Safely") and returned to the Windows 7 computer. Once the drive came up I get the following:
K: is not accessible. The disk structure is corrupted and unreadable.
I know every drive fails eventually and I'm not sure how old this drive is. Any utilities to use to try and repair the file structure. I have only tried rebooting the Windows 7 computer and that did not change anything.
Am unable to read or write in my hard disk.. every time it shows msg saying not accessible. i tried to format but even that is not happening. i tried using cmd prompt. but no use.
Can I format a Hard Drive with Windows 7 using a 2000 format disk. If so, what are the prompts i see and action on boot-up before I use the format C. Done it before but just forgot
I have an external Samsung 640Gb hard drive which is not showing up in Windows Explorer, even though Device Manager shows it as recognized and working properly. I am running Windows 7 Home and this is something new as when I bought the drive it showed up in Explorer. I really need this drive as all my backups and programs are on it!
I have a terabyte external, WD Element I think. I have never had an issues before but today I plug it in (to play Diablo III) and it is not being recognized. At all. It's not in Disk Management, I can't find it anywhere. Suggestions or reasons this might be happening out of no where??
There are times when it is not being recognized by Windows 7(pro). It has three interface options (fire wire, esata, and USB). I have tried all three at one time or another, finally settling on the eSATA interface. When it IS recognized, it runs smoothly, with no hiccups. But when I try to shut down the PC, sometimes it hangs up on the shut down screen for a long time (more than 15 minutes at times) until I actually press the on/off button on the My Book. When I do this, my PC immediately shuts down, but then, if I start up my PC, Windows does not see it again. I then have to power the My Book back on, then power up the PC and hope that it is recognized again. It�s not a big issue, because it is not frequently used, except for storing back-ups. It�s just something that is a nuisance. I�m not even sure that it is a Windows problem, because sometimes it is not detected in BIOS. why it is intermittently being detected and why it is hindering the shut-down process?
I have a Lacie 250GB firewire external HD (couple of years old) which I use as a backup device. It's only used (switched on) about once a month.Everything has been fine until yesterday. When I switch it on, the light comes on and it whirrs into action as usual, but, rather unusually, Windows 7 (32bit) starts looking for a driver and then says, "Device driver software was not successfully installed". The HD, unsurprisingly, doesn't show in "My Computer" but does show in "Device Manager".I have uninstalled and reinstalled the HD, but still no joy.I have a separate 64bit partition (used exclusively for music) on the PC which does recognise the HD, so all is not lost, and leads me to think that the HD or cable is not the problem.
This problem just popped up on both my win 7 machines. Powered usb external drives (the ones that are based on standard hard drives and plug into the wall) are recognized, but the smaller usb powered ones are not. The drives work on the same computers when booted xp so it's not the usb itself.
I`ve upgraded my laptop`s ram today from 4gb to 8gb, why not do a fresh install of windows as dell support center wasn`t loading up anymore .Anyhow I have a lacie 500Gb hard drive which seemed to work fine till now . Right now , after the reinstall my hard drive just isn`t accesible anymore . Basically i can see it in the devices and printers section , i can see it on disk management ( i also tried changing the letter etc , the partition is active i can see that it`s 500gb but i can`t acces any data ) and i can also see it on My computer as a partition but not as a storage device . What does happen is after 2-3 minutes or so , a windows pop`s out to format the disk which i can`t even do , on my girlfriend`s laptop works very well . Now this is extremely strange as i did nothing and all but reinstall windows , also i`ve updated to date .Now i`ve also tried uninstalling the usb driver from disk management still no joy .
I recently installed Windows 7 - 64 bit on my Dell Precision M4400. Now the computer does not recognize any external monitors. It does not detect the external monitor as connected. I tried FunctionF8, and also tried to find if there were missing or outdated drivers and have had no luck.
I am trying to format my 1.5Tb Samsung external HDD using Windows XP X64.I tried using port E and F.Formatting goes on for upto 7 hours,progress bar gets to end and I get the 'can't complete format' message.I am a computing dummy, how to get this done correctly and successfuly.
750 Samsung portable device. Problems seems to sort itself out eventually but it keeps firing up prompts to format the drive before I can use it. First time it happened I had to unplug it, restarted and then it was OK. It just did it again and then again when I restarted, took a minute or two but eventually it read the drive and it was ok. Why is this happening and what can I do to stop it? Might it be a power issue? I have the device connected via a USB 2.0 port, through an extension lead and then through a 4 way splitter. I have had problems with this splitter before I think, but not with the small connector. Maybe I can try connecting it through one of the other ports and see if it still has the same problem.
Attached an external sata hd with an esata connection. After power boot, external drive not recognized and also secondary internal sata hd not recognized.
Do I need to do something to the BIOS?Sinch stonooka has chosen the best answer to his/her question.Click here to view the answer that was selected.
Buffalo HD-PET640U2/R-EU?I've been having problems with the above drive (similar to this previous thread). I've had the drive for about a year & a half. It worked fine (on Win XP Home) up until a few days ago, when I connected it to my new laptop (Win 7).On connecting, a warning message came up saying that Windows had detected disk errors - did I want to scan it? I said Yes, it completed the scan (no errors), but I couldn't access any of the files in Windows Explorer. I Safely Removed USB Hardware and tried again, but said No to the error scan ("Are you sure, some files may be corrupted?"). On continuing, I could see all my files.I then selected Windows Scandisk, and once the scan completed the HDD was very slow to select. It didn't show any of my files again, and showed the following error messages whenever I tried to access it:
Local Disk (E)You need to format the disk in drive E: before you can use it.Do you want to format it?
Error checking
The disk check could not be performed because the disk is not formatted. The disk check could not be performed because Windows can't access the disk.
Would you like to format the disk?Location is not available E:\ is not accessible.The volume does not contain a recognised file system.Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.I have tried it on all 4 USB2 & USB3 ports, and my other Buffalo external HDDs work fine.The HDD appears as 'Buffalo HD-PETU2 USB Device' in:
Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Devices and Printers Control Panel\Hardware and Sound -> Device Manager and in Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management
as '596.17GB RAW Online & Healthy'. My other HDDs appear as 'NTFS' or 'FAT32', not 'RAW', and I think (but am not 100% certain) that I'd formatted the problem disk to FAT32 when I bought it.In My Computer the disk only registers as 'Local Disk (E)'.I have tried to update Drivers but Windows says I already have the most up-to-date ones for the HDD.I also tried reassigning the Drive Letter to (K), but no change.This disk was the backup for my most important files when I changed to my new laptop, and so I really don't want to lose them. I've read on some sites that I can still attempt to recover the files even if I format the drive (as long as I haven't written anything new to it), but I don't want to risk that unless there's no alternative. Equally I'd rather not try opening the drive casing up - on one forum it was suggested that the 'power supply component' for the HDD might be the problem, and opening the casing, removing the p/supply comp and running the drive in another hard drive enclosure might work.
I've been using a 1TB iOmega external hard drive with my laptop for about a month and a few days ago it stopped working and isn't being recognised, the power light comes on when i connect the usb cable to the laptop but there is no noise from the hard drive at all and it doesn't show in disk management.
I took it into work with me and connected to my work PC (which runs XP) and it works fine, also tried it on another laptop which is running Vista and it doesn't work.
I have an external hard drive, and a lot of data saved on it. My laptop recognises it, but i can't access it. When i go to device manager and try intialize, it says it is not ready.
my external Seagate hard drive is no longer being recognized by my system. The information on this is absolutely critical to me- I am a DJ and Producer and this particular drive contains all of my song stems, acapellas, instrumentals, sample kits, and also backups of every program I use (as well as my OS backup).
I just recently moved into a new apartment and my drive worked fine before the move 2 days ago. I do not think I bumped it or damaged it (seeing as how I always put them in safe places on the go) and it is now no longer working.
I have a My Book Essential 1TB External. I'm on Windows 7 x64. After I updated I've been getting a lot of bugs and extreme lag. I would click on the drive in My Computer, enter my HD password and the drive would open up with all my folders, etc. But then when I wanted to drag folders from my External onto my PC hard drive it would freeze up and automatically quit? Windows would no longer show the External as attached to my computer. No matter how many times I click on the icon in the task bar for WD SmartWare, it will never come back up. I have to restart my PC everytime so I can renter the External. I then installed all WD software from the Control Panel, didn't change anything or help at all.I have no clue what to do or what has happened, but my External HD is pretty much useless right now. I have very important files on there, I need to get access to this immediately.
EDIT: Now my PC has trouble recognizing the External. I tried it on my Laptop also, it doesn't show anything. It shows up under disk management sometimes. For example it'll show up then simply disappear.
Finally after restarting my PC a bunch of times and switching USB ports back and forth, this CD DRIVE E: icon appeared for the WD UNLOCKER. Whenever I try and double click on it to open it up, the green bar appears to load as seen below, then the icon just disappears, it will not open anything. When the "CD Drive (E:) WD Unlocker appears like above, my external HD will briefly appear under DISK MANAGEMENT. It shows up then just goes away along with the E: drive icon. I don't know if the USB cable that connects the External to my PC is bad or not? My external was working an hour before all this happened, so I don't understand what is happening? Also, when I click on "Devices and Printers", an icon appears with "My Book 1130". This is what is shows.
My External does light up when plugged into my PC and turns off when removed. I can hear a ticking sound which sounds like the HD working? All these problems seemed to start after I updated to WD SmartWare 1.5.1.6. I even unistalled all the WD software. For some reason whenever I try to install "WDSmartWare_Software_Upgrader_for_Windows_1.5.1.6 " it just sits there and hangs, doesn't do anything.
I have a toshiba external 200G hard drive. It was used on a Dell computer which ran Windows XP. I now have a new computer which runs windows 7. However when i connect the external hard drive to the new computer i start to experience problems with the files on there.
So there are a number of directories, my pics for example. When I click on it you can see the pics on some of the sub folders when you view via icons. Some you cannot see the pic, just shows a generic shot. When you try and open the pics / jpegs you get an error saying image not found, check 'full pathname / file' exists. The same is true for all files, docs etc
I have been able to load the same pics and docs via a cd, so it is a problem with my new pc recognising the hard drive as opposed to a problem with the files
iomega ego 500 gb was working fine until today and now it won't recognize the drive at all. it recognizes the partitioned cd virtual drive in it, but not the larger storage drive. I plugged it into two different computers and it is recognized and i can drag and drop files. I also plugged in a usb flash drive into the same usb port and it works...so the usb drive works. I was told to assign the drive a letter in disk management, but it doesn't even show up there.
I recently switched from a Mac to a PC. I cloned my system partition of my PC to my external hard disk, and I only realized later that the external HDD was in a Mac OS extended (journaled) format. I thought I would have to format that partition as NTFS and re-clone afterwards. I tried to remove that partition using Disk Utilities on my Mac but got an error message. Surprisingly, though, when I connected the external HDD to my PC, I can access that partition under My Computer, and when I open Disk Management that partition is listed as NTFS.
1) How can I tell if the cloned partition on my external HDD is ok? 2) Should I reformat it and start from scratch instead? 3) If so, should I be making an image OR a clone of my system disk (so that I can boot from my external HDD and restore my system if my internal HDD fails)?
I am trying to create a system image ready for installing a larger HDD (WD20EARX), but when using the Windows 7 wizard, the drive, Buffalo 500 USB External HDD, is not in the drop down selection box. The drive is there OK and can use it OK for normal work and there is over 450GB available. My original HDD is 160GB.
I have windows 7 with a Verbatim 1TB external drive, the system is not recognising the external drive. When I switch it off and back on again it then recognises it and loads it in My Computer. I have another external USB drive which works just fine. This problem started after I formatted the PC and reinstalled windows 7. It worked fine before under the same OS. I tried another wire and plugged it into another port but still have the same problem.
and i got problem with my brothers WD external hard drive, it's not recognized in my computer, my brother says "it lost the drive letter or may be some files broken" he had some knowledge about that but we can't fix that one.
