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portable hard drive dropped

Q: portable hard drive dropped

External hard drive was accidentally dropped and unsafely unplugged by accident. Computer now states the device is working properly but it is not listed under device manager or in "my computer". I run Windows xp pro on a desk top dell.

Preferred Solution: portable hard drive dropped




A: portable hard drive dropped

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I need an external hard drive for taking regular backups of all of my data.
When i searched the internet I got two options:
1. Porable HDD [high cost, slower speed but don't need external power]
2. Desktop HDD [low cost, higher speed but need external power]

I want to know that...
1. Which hard disk's live longer? Porable or Desktop.
2. I heared that pulling off USB cable of Portable HDD may cause data lose because it also supplies power to hdd.
What will happpen if Power goes off from Desktop HDD? Will my data/Hard disk remain protected?
3. Level of safety of data on moving or shaking on both Desktop and Portable HDD.
4. Can we install os and boot from portable and desktop external hdd?

A:Need Advice : External Desktop Hard drive vs Portable Hard drive?

Unless you really need to go portable with a Laptop .. I'd not use a USB powered External.
You cannot boot from a USB External .. But there's another option if you're capable of physically changing HDDs ..

Get a good external Enclosure (with a fan for cooling) .. Install a good HDD ... with a 5 year warranty
and make the HDD in the enclosure a bootable backup .. where you could swap HDDs if/when needed ..

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I have a friend who was reinstalling a hard drive on one of his other computers and he dropped it between the transfer. He has data on it and he wants to set this as the boot drive because it has more gigs that his old HDD. He did this and it is bootable, however it stalls the computer at random times (boot, 10mins after full startup. etc.), and sometimes even shutsdown on its own. I believe that it may have scratched the internal disks or something else. I tried running scan disk from normal, safe mode and DOS and it stalled. Any sugestions... I'm at a loss for him.

A:Dropped Hard Drive

Yes, well dropping a hard drive is not good but that may not be the entire problem here.

If you take a hard drive with an operating system and put it in another computer with different hardware Windows will not be happy. If you formated the drive and reinstalled Windows then this is not a problem.

To test the drive, you can got to the manufacturer's website and download a diagnostics that when you run will install itself to a floppy disk. Then boot off that disk and run all the tests.

Since its a Maxtor: http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...tware Downloads/ATA Hard Drives&downloadID=22

Also, does your computer support an 80GB drive? Older systems do not without a BIOS update. When the computer turns on and displays the hardware info does it show the drive capacity as 80GB? You can also enter the BIOS setup and use teh IDE Autodetection to setup the drive and check the capacity.

Lastly you willl want to make sure the drive is jumpered correctly - The primary drive needs to be set to Master using the jumpers on the back and any secondary drive on the SAME IDE cable must be set as SLAVE.

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I dropped my WD external hard drive and when I plug it in it shows up in device manager, but I cannot access any of the files on it. No errors show, I just can't open any thing. Is there any way to get it working properly again?  

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I dropped my 1 TB Seagate Freeagent (external power) HD when it was powered on, about 3 feet onto a hard floor.

It started working again as soon as I reconnected, to my relief .. !

I ran SMART tests on the HD (in ubuntu) and the self-tests and SMART attributes report that the disk is perfectly healthy (no attribute is failing)

Does this mean that my HDD is fine or can it go anytime now ? (I've backed up all my data)
What should I expect ?

A:Dropped Hard drive

As long as it didn't land in a position that caused
the heads to crash into the platter,you are probably ok.
Probably want to keep an eye on it for a while anyway.

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Yesterday i was cleaning dust out of my computer. when i went to turn it sideways, the hard drive fell out and hit the concrete. when i went to turn it back on, it would only go as far as the initial windows xp loadup screen and then restart. upon restart, it said that windows did not shut down properly and to choose an option to start normally, last known config, safe mode, and safe mode with networking. i choose start normally, and the cycle repeats itself. Is my hard drive gone? and if so how can i recover data from it.?

A:hard drive dropped

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I have a very similar problem as Gallagwar (That Thread Has Now Expired). I Dropped My External Hard Drive while it will still plugged up, now the USB part connected to the external hard drive is loose and now when I plug it up, the blue light comes on, but it will not show up on any my desktops! Both my desktops have Windows Vista on them. I have tried plugging it up several times in both my pc's and still they will not recognize it? I have Hitachi SimpleDrive 2TB USB 3.5" External Hard Drive and it is still under warranty. I would like to save my files and then see if I can send it out for repair. The most important thing is saving my files!

Can someone help me?

A:I Dropped My External Hard Drive!

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I have a external maxtor hard drive and I dropped it from my desk to a thin carpet floor.. I plug it in and it just makes a clicking noise and then after 4 mintues or so.. it stops clicking and no noise comes out.. When i click on my comptuer it is not there The green light is still on the external hard drive though..

I can't believe a little drop to the floor can ruin it? It has a hard casing around it.. what can i do? Can it still be saved? Help!!!

A:i dropped my external hard drive, can it be fix

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hi, i have an external portable hard drive (250gb) and i recently dropped it, and ever since i cant move anything onto it. i get up to 2gb of files then it just stops and you can hear it clicking away... could i have possibly scratched it maybe? if so, is there any way of fixing this??



A:External Hard Drive dropped

Dropping it probably has severely damaged it and is doubtful that it can be repaired. Someone else may be able to come along and give you another opinion but harddrives are fragile. You may be able to run a harddrive diagnostics on it via your system, but I would get anything you have loaded onto it that you can access and transfer it it to another harddrive, flash drive, etc.

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Hey guys lol I just bought 2 HD's for my 2bay enclosure.. as i was walkin out of the store i opened the door for some guys that were carrying a huge load, anyway i was still in his way and the hard drives i was carrying on top of my enclosures fell on cement....
i haven't tried to see if they are still working...but even if they did work should i go replace them? im afraid of long term affects? i tried googling this but no straight answer...
i know dropping a HD can corrupt data but since they're brand new..they have nothing on it..
any suggestions? i bought it from ncix i could just tell them they weren't working right and they'll replace it...?

hope you guys can shed some light
i'm kind of worried



A:Dropped hard drive should I replace it?

They should be fine, the heads aren't above the platters like they are if you drop/bump it while its running. If they were in the box when they fell then I'm sure you will be fine, they are packaged to take a beating during shipping.

Even if they aren't you could either return them to the store, or RMA them.

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I purchased 1 tb external WD hard drive 4 months back.

Today, I dropped it accidentally from my table. Now it is not working. Produces clicking noise. Is it dead? The data was not important but I need a functional hard disk.

I have 3 years warranty. The manufacturers are asking to ship the hard drive and then they will mail me the replacement. Is the warranty on my hard drive void?
There are no visible damage signs from outside. Further, clicking of hard drive are now common and occur for many reason apart from physical damage.
Do I have any chance that I would get a replacement?
Please help.

A:dropped external hard drive


Please do not hijack the threads of others with your particular question. Please also do not post in multiple manner.

I've moved your above into your own thread and deleted your other identical posts.

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My dogs pulled the cords of my Maxtor external hard drive and pulled it off the table. When I plug it in now in the USB port, the ding goes off saying its plugged in, but nothing shows at all in explorer. I have tried to plug into 2 different computers.

1) Is there anything I can try?
2) If this means my drive is dead, how can I recover the data in the cheapest way possible?

Thanks for your help,


A:External Hard Drive dropped

If the drive itself has died, (through heads hitting platters) then data recovery will be by laboratory means only and will cost thousands, if even possible.

The "ding" suggests the USB interface is OK, so have you actually checked the see if the drive is still plugged in OK inside the case, before we jump to conclusions?

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hey guys, I've had a 2 terrabyte hard drive since november 2011, and the other day it was hooked up to my laptop when I pulled it away.
it fell 2 feet and 2 inches onto my desk, when I plugged it in, it needed formatting so I unplugged it an tried again and it worked for about 3 minutes before it stopped working all together.
now the hard drives light flashes like always but it doesn't appear on my laptop, any suggestions?

thanks in advance

A:Dropped Hard drive, won't work

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Not long ago, I bought a Seagate FreeAgent 500GB external hard drive. It was working just fine until I accidently knocked it over. When it fell it bumped the leg of a table pretty hard. Immediately after that, I started getting popup balloons on the taskbar saying 'write error' or something similar. Then I tried to doubleclick on the drive in My Computer and it froze up. So then I unplugged and replugged and it said 'USB Device Not Recognized.' Those error messagesn were the last I heard from it. Then I restarted, and after that, the drive would not display in My Computer at all, would not even react to the computer at all. I tried it on two computers. Still, nothing. I noticed a strange sound coming from the hard drive. It's a sort of melodic buzzing with a beeping sound every few seconds. Sometimes it goes completely silent. So what I need to know is:

- What can I do, can I fix it myself?
- If not, how much can I expect to pay to get my data recovered? At the very least, I need a listing of the files that were on the hard drive, just so I know exactly what I'm missing. I might be able to replace them myself if I know exactly everything that's on it.
- Is the hard drive fixable? If not, will the warranty cover replacement?
- Also, I called around a few places and the most reasonable one said it would cost around $100 to fix it. Is this worth it?

Thanks in advance.

A:Dropped My External Hard Drive, Won't Work

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Guys i need help,,i accidentally dropped my hard drive its a 1tb buffalo hd-pntu3,,now when i go to disk management in my computer its showing up as disk 1 unknown allocated,,and when i try to initialize disk its greyed out!,,please i need help,, i have a lot of files on this drive,,please help!!

A:Accidentally Dropped External Hard Drive

It is probably corrupted, does it have a warranty? This happen to one of mine a couple months ago, it's pretty annoying. You have to keep these things in a safe spot lol.

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I unfortunately dropped my dell inspiron n5010 laptop yesterday ( on carpet) and when I booted it lead me to windows recovery stating 0xc000009ce , either external usb problem or cd/dvd/ hard drive failure etc. I was able to go on safe mode but I wasn't able to retrive my files and my laptop was runnign really slow. After that, I restarted many times and finally I was able to boot normally, but again, it would take 10-15 minutes and it would lag all the time. I was able to transfer my files to an external flash drive( most of them) but I lost patience because it would lag etc. And after 50 min or so , it would shut off without notice.No files were missing and everything seems ok expect for the speed part. I also did a check disk upon reboot and it said it found no bad sectors , so I am puzzled why the result is lik that. I n my case, what is the best solution? buy another hdd , reinstall hdd, or reinstall windows 7? Also , I still have som videos that I wasn't able to transfer so what is the best way to retrieve them?

Also, the RAM at the back when I unscrewed the cover the first time to see if it was just a loose memory problem were popped out, so I put them back in again by slightly pushing them down until the metal things on the side clicked them into place. Now, when I tried to take the RAM again by pushing those metal things on the side apart the RAM didn't pop out,? I had to slide them out carefully? is that normal , thank you.

oh and I am running windows 7

A:dropped laptop damaged hard drive HELP

Hi bstvrhd,

The unit most likely at fault is the HDD. What I would recommend you to do is install Windows on an external Harddrive OR run an Ubuntu Live CD on an USB drive, and see if the problem persists. If all the above options run well, it's most likely the HDD. Thats where I would start atleast :)

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I accidently dropped my iomega 1tb external hard drive and now when i turn it on it says i have to reformat it, does that mean all my files have been deleted, if so is there any way i can retrieve them? please help me!

A:How to fix dropped iomega 1tb external hard drive?

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I accidently dropped my external Maxtor hard drive. now windows wont see it when i plug it in my usb port. i still sounds like its working ok it spins make sounds just that when i plug it in it want get recognized. i tried different cpus and usb cords with no luck.

the enclosure powers on.

im going to plug it in to the inside of my tower test it to see if it will read it. before i take the enclosure apart, is there anything else i should try? i hope its just the enclosure that is not working anymore.

A:Solved: oh NO!! I dropped my external Hard Drive

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My sister dropped my laptop and I am worried I may have a faulty hard drive.

Is there any good tool out there which can thoroughly check my Hard Drive for ANY error at all?


A:Dropped my Laptop may have faulty Hard Drive

Use something like SeaTools to check condition of HDD, link to download here

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My portable Hard Drive stopped working. It's a WD Elements 2TB do not you know how this is possible but when I plug it into my computer my computer recognize it. But all my pictures videos in other things I have on it are gone. Does anyone know a program that you can buy online or free ? That I can recover them back ? Thank you for any help on this
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A:Portable Hard Drive help

Is this machine using a newer Windows version than was being when this drive worked?

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I have just bought a new portable hard drive made by Zynet, but it a Fujitsu hard drive, anyway, I came to install it, windows said it has installed the driver, but it is not showing up on my pc's, checking the disk management page I find the new hard drive is not initialized, so I click on initialize now, and get a box popping up say 'The device is not ready'?
I have updated the usb drivers to no effect, tried uninstalling, restarting, reinstalling all to no avail!
This getting REALLY annoying as I want to back 100's of GB of music on to it?

A:New Portable Hard Drive


Have you tried plugging it into different USB ports on the computer?
Have you tried doing a Windows Update to see if you can obtain the latest drivers?

Can you also post additional info on the model of the HD?

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Hi I have A portable hard drive in the past I have downloaded movies I have paid for from the internet onto the hd and plugged it into my dvd palyer and watched them on my tv, but yesterday I brought some more movies and whilst my hd is plugged into my computor the movies play and the file shows but when I plug into my dvd it doesnt show any of the new movie file I ve tried pc fixex but not sure what else could have gone wrong???

A:portable hard drive

Hi Bessy1, and welcome to TSG.

There is no guarantee that I will have a solution for you, but it might help someone else here to help you if you let us know the following:

1) Brand and model number of the DVD player

2) URL of the web site where you are purchasing the downloads. Have you been using the same site for the movies that do play and the new ones that do not play?

3) The file format (file name extension) of the old files that do play and new files that will not play

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I have a portable hard drive (I/O Magic)
80 gigs

I love it, it's small.
And I can take it around with me.
I use it very often.

However, I was using it on my laptop today and I accidentally let it drop onto the carpet. The fall was only about 1 1/2 feet tops but it obviously did something negative. So, my problem is that it doesn't load up anymore when I hook the USB into my laptop or desktop. I think a wire got loose inside and that's why the drive isn't spinning. i don't know, I need help! The light still works on the portable harddrive but that's about it. I have a lot of data on this drive that I can't afford to lose!

Any suggestions on how to fix this problem?

A:NEED HELP! My portable hard drive

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Hi all hope someone can help me with this. I have a Lenovo G710 laptop, new. I have a Seagate 500gb hd in a portable caddy. When I turn it on it makes all the sounds then shows up in my computer. When I try to open it it it starts to open then hangs, then screen flash it disappears the laptop makes a noise & a message appears that a usb device has not been recognised. I have gone into disk manager run a check on the drive it says it all ok I have all my files & photos on here so hope I can get some help Thanks in advance Reg

A:portable hard drive

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I have a Segate 40 GB Momentus ATA hard drive. The drive is connected to the USB port, but the computer does not recognise the drive. Please send your suggestions if anyone experienced the same problem.

A:portable hard drive

you mean you dont see it in explorer window?
have you tried computer management
right click my computer manage go to disk management see if it is there unformatted
have you loaded the usb drivers
check your device under hadrware see if you have yellow ?

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which hard drive you you all think is the best:


or this LACIE:
LaCie - Rugged USB 3.0

I don't know which one to choose since my seagate agent go is broken...

A:Portable Hard Drive

Sorry I can't help as I haven't used either, my external drive is a Seagate Expansion so not what you would call a portable one as it's used on a desktop computer, don't have a laptop.

I suppose it comes down to what you can afford and which one would give you all the features you need, have you read any reviews about them and if so which comes out the better buy ?

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i have a protable hard drive on my server and the files are shared and randomly i try to access a folder and it says its corrupted plz run checkdisk i have done that and it fixes it then a few hours later it does it somewhere else, any idea how it is causing all this?

A:portable hard drive

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I have a portable Hard Drive, and i have a problem
I partitioned my hard drive a while ago, into different sections, for example, Music, TV Eppisodes and a Hard drive named 'Portable HDD'
I am able to acess TV Eppisodes and Portable HDD but not Music

When i try to access it i get this error

I then opened ESAEUS partition manager to have a look what the problem is and this is all i see

Ive noticed that all my other hard dives are Primary and this is logical.
What do i do to get this working please? I've tried to scan disk for errors and get this message

Thanks for reading this.

A:Portable Hard Drive

You might try partition recovery. But it looks like the partition is gone. It may be easier just to create a new partition and restore your backups.


Testdisk Documentation
Testdisk Download
Diskinternals Partition Recovery
Testdisk Boot Disk
Partition Find & Mount
Free DTIData NTFS Partition Repair Tool


Diskinternals Partition Recovery (Demo)
[email protected] Partition Recovery
Bootmaster Partition Recovery
ZAR Partition Recovery
DIY DataRecovery DiskPatch
Partition Table Doctor

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Just got myself a new portable hard drive made by Zynet.
Every time I try to Initialize it, a box pops up saying The device is not ready?
I have tried changing the USb sockets it is plugged into, to no avail?
The HD is on, the pc recognises it, as it is showing up in the disk management screen.

But the strange thing is my laptop also running Windows 7 recognised straight away?

A:New Portable Hard Drive

Quote: Originally Posted by FatTrace

Just got myself a new portable hard drive made by Zynet.


Does DM assign it a drive letter?

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I can't get my pc (os:xp2003) to read my portable hard drive (Moving Star). my usb ports onmy laptop work and function properly with all my other compatible software, and my external hard drive specifications state that it should be fully compatible with my software but when i plug it in, and follow the instructions for installation and come to an abrupt stand still because my pc doesn't even acknowledge anything being there. Also, the driver cd-rom only read as a windows music cd on my pc. Can you help me?

A:portable hard drive

not sounding funny, but have you plugged it into the mains if its a big portable drive?

if not..is your laptop USB 2.0..?

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I need a external hard drive to take with me from office to office to home. My needs are around 30-40 gig to carry the programs I need and to back up my personal documents. What would some of you recomend, I am assuming it would be USB, I saw some cases that you put a hard drive in but wondered if thats the way to go. Any advice would be appreciated.


A:Need portable hard drive

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I would like to install XP onto a portable hard drive

A:portable hard drive

There's a tutorial here: How Install Windows on an External Hard Drive | eHow.com

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Damn! I dropped my hard drive
Only 2ft
I was running acronis and backing up my hard drive
The program stalled and wouldn't do anything else saying it couldn't access the disc

I restarted and am running again. All seems ok
But, I wanted to know are there any programs I can run to do a health check?

The hard drive is a 2.5 Seagate in an enclosure


A:Ooops I dropped my hard drive - how do I check for errors?


NOT the pro........... the 2nd d/l

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For some reason, after upgrading my Windows XP computer to Windows 7, my C: hard drive maximum capacity has reduced 50%. I do not know what has happened because a computer professional had done it for me. I need more space on this computer badly.

A:Hard drive capacity dropped after Windows reinstallation

hi, check C:\ for a windows.old folder,if it is there delete it if there is nothing in it that you need from xp
How do I remove the Windows.old folder?

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I am looking to buy a new hard drive to store data (mostly games and pictures). But I'm not sure which type of hard drive to buy. Could you please help I want to be able to transfer the data to my laptop also.

A:External Hard drive vs Portable hard drive

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Hi Everyone. So, here's what happened, I dropped my laptop running Windows Vista on a Thinkpad R500 That is about 3 years old, while it was streaming audio from the net nonetheless

I had to reseat it, but since then it won't boot - it goes into "startup repair" saying its fixing errors and hangs there indefinitely (for days at a time).
What I've tried:

-I was able to use the system rescue cd to mount my drive and copy the needed data to an external drive, although I know it encountered some errors.
-I've run lenovo's hd diagnostics and it says there are errors in the drive, but I just need a way to fix it.
-I do not have a vista dvd so I cannot run chkdsk.
-I downloaded a Vista startup repair disk image but when I boot from that cd and choose repair your computer it never gives me the option to go to command line or system restore, it goes straight to startup repair and its does not recognize the drive. MS website says this is because lenovo has its own restoration libraries, which DO NOT contain anything to fix a hard drive. I am apparently supposed to order a dvd from support if I need one.
So, I'm looking for a reliable Hard drive repair tool, essentially a free equivalent of chkdsk that I can run through my cd drive to try to find and fix the errors. Or, if there is a chkdsk redistributable out there, even better.
Linux based is fine, I think fixing the physical errors might be worth it.

Although, generally, are these sorts o... Read more

A:Dropped my hard drive - Startup Repair Hangs- no vista DVD

Chkdsk cannot fix a dropped drive. Or partitions. It only fixes the file system. You better just buy a new one. That one is about to quit completely in all likelihood.

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Hi all, my title says it all-I think I'm totally screwed. I have Western Digital 500GB Essential edition external hard drive, runnining on Vista. I have access to an old PC that has XP on it if that would make a difference. It has years of my pictures (that haven't been printed or backed up-that's what this was for!) on it. I dropped it this morning, and when I reconnect it says that I must reformat the drive in order for it to work/be recognised. I know if I do this that I'll lose everything. Is there a way to view the folders/files and export them before reformatting? I'm starting to panic, over 10 years of memories via photo will be down the drain if I can't find a way to sort this out, am in a cold sweat and starting to freak
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give,

A:Dropped my external hard drive-says I need to reformat it-will I lose all data?

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The other day whilst backing up my computer to my portable hard drive for the first time, my flatmate disconnected my hard drive accidentally.

Now when I connect my hard drive to my computer (Vista Ultimate 64-bit) or any other computer (I've tried XP, Vista 32-bit and 7 64-bit), a balloon pops up from the notification area saying that the new hardware is being installed. It then says that it was successfully install and is ready to use. However, the hard drive does not appear under windows explorer.

When I open device manager I can find the hard drive and it says it is working properly. When I open computer managment and then go to disk management it says that disk 2 (the hard disk) is not initialized. When I right click it and select initialize, it asks me what partition style is on the disk (master boot record (MBR) or GUID partition table (GPT) partition style). No matter what one I select (I've tried both) I get a pop up saying there is an error.

How do I initialize and access/retrieve the information on my hard drive? If this isn't a possibility, how do I reformat the entire hard drive so that I can use it again? At the moment its useless to me.

If you need any more info, please just ask! Thanks in advance.

A:Portable hard drive problem

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My major concerns at this point are at the very least being able to recover most if not all the files on the phd. I know I should have backed up and it bit me in the ass that I didn?t.Life Lesson # 1003: what you think will never happen to you; will in fact happen. I did try to research this on my own but I was unable to find something that even remotely matched this situation so I was unsure about taking the corrective actions that applied to other issues. I don't know if they are related but I have a suspicion they most likely are based on the time frame of the behaviors. I have tried to be as specific as possible if there is more info needed I will gladly provide it. If there is anyone that can help or at least guide me through a data recovery process I will be forever grateful and would consider naming my third born after the hero who solves this! System InfoOS: Wxp (sp3) Home Windows firewall (will be changing) Avast Antivirus (had Norton till the problems started) Wireless internet run through a combo router/modem Linksys wireless adapter Simpletech portable usb drive (320GB) FirefoxI frequently run Photoshop/PS Elements/Acrobat and Office. Bc of the size of these programs I have a secondary hard drive that is dedicated to music and a portable hard drive that is dedicated to graphics, documents, and photoshop tools. I have listed the errors after the symptoms. Symptoms: ? Error Msgs start? Wireless Internet issue... Read more

A:Disappearing portable hard drive

Typically...when a drive disappears...it has a problem.

Since it's an external drive, it could the enclosure the drive is in...it could be the actual hard drive itself.

My suggestion would be to remove the drive from enclosure...connect it directly to a working system...and see if the system picks it up properly.

If it does, then I would suggest moving all files from the drive immediately...and then running the appropriate hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic (long test, not short) on it.

If My Computer does not reflect the drive, but Disk Management reflects as either an empty volume, a RAW volume, or an unknown file system...then your best effort will be to try data recovery software.


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I have a portable WD hard drive. I know there are files on it (I put them there) since it shows I have about half the memory used. All of a sudden I can't access the files on the drive. (I'm not real computer literate.) How can I access these files?

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Iv recently purchased a Western Digital 120GB Portable Hard Drive USB2.0 5400rpm 2MB Cache Retail Passport Drive it comes with a 8" long Hi-Speed USB to mini-USB Type B. Considering the length of the cable and that I'm using it with a desktop and not a laptop i thought i would buy a USB extension cable to make life easier. I purchased a Belkin Pro Series USB Extension Cable 1.8m which has a 4 PIN USB Type A - male to a 4 PIN USB Type A - female. The USB extension was plugged into a USB2 port on the PC and then the i plugged the portable hard drive into that alas i got nothing from it. I know that the portable hard drive sources its power from the usb port and tried it without the USB extension cable and it worked fine.

My question is why?

Do i need a 5 pin usb type A to a 5 pin usb type B extension cable or simple i can't use an extension cable with it?

What is the difference between a 4pin and a 5pin, is it something to do with devices sourcing their power from the usb port?

also one more thing has any one had any dealings with these USB cables that use two usb ports to produce double the power


Cheers in advance guys.

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I need a portable hard drive because i don't not have enough space on my computer. i was wondering if its possible to put games on it and if i can load like WoW onto it and play right off of it or if that would be to slow? if it wouldn't then i need help finding a not to expensive but very good one.

A:Help with buying a portable hard drive

if you connect to your PC using fire wire connection instead of USB it probably wouldnt be too bad for playing games off, but i dont really know. butt youd be better transfering music, photos, etc onto removeable and using main HD for games. what size is your current HD and what you looking to buy?

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Gentleman (and possibly ladies)

Thanks for what you do guys... My problem is simple.. I bought a Logitec (not logitech) 60G HD USB Plug and Play. Took it out of the box and plugged it in and worked fine.. I backed up 30 gigs of music and all my pics.
2 days ago my laptop froze up and I was forced to restart by shutting the computer completly off and turning it back on. The hard drive was still connected.
When I did the reboot. I could no longer find the HD in my computer, although the computer recognized a mass storage device plugged in and then it recogized it as "WDC ROM - SCORPIO" instead of the normal "LHD USB". I can't access any information and it refuses to show up as my E:/ in My Computer like it used to. I'm all out of options.. I really want my music and pics back.. Please help.

saddened by the loss,

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Another hard drive problem
Ok, so i lost all my data on the hard drive earlier, today i came to have another look, ive gone to my computer and there is nothing there

but is shown in my devices

when i click on it, it doesnt do anything

Help please?

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I had lots of data on my portable hard drive, like 200 GB. i moved my computer, and unplugged my hdd drive, now its saying there is nothing inside it.

but when i go into my computer, its showing this

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Just bought a Seagate FreeAgent Go 250GB hard drive to back up the computer, which is fairly old now. The problem is - my laptop only has 1 USB port and the hard drive requires two USB ports.

Am I able to connect the Power and Data cable to my computer and back up while connecting the Power only cable to another computer at the same time?

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