External Hard Drive Inaccesable :/

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therandomhero

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Oct 1, 2013
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I have a Seagate SRD00F1. It was working fine last month when I used it to back my data up but now when I plug it in it won't appear in my Computer section. When I go onto Device Manager it appears under 'Other Devices' under the name 'Expansion'.

I tried right clicking, and updating and it came back with the error message: 'Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error when attempting to install it. USB Mass Storage Device. There is no driver selected for the device information set or element.'

So from my knowledge it seems the PC recognises it, wants to install it as USB Mass Storage, but cannot for some reason...

I also tried the copy and paste usbstor.inf file trick but neither mine nor my girlfriends PC HAS a usbstor.inf file in the Driver Repository.... only usbstor.pnf....

I'm stumped....
 
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I`m going to quickly explain why it has failed.

It is not the physical drive in the enclosed black portable external segate case.

But it is the actual bridge board housed inside of it.
The bridge board converts the usb connector to a Sata interface of the actual drive. If 500Gb ect.

The chip set is on the bridge board is broke.
And that is now why windows cannot identify the correct driver/ or storage driver to use.

In your case your lucky because in order to get the drive to work or read the files off it.

It will involve opening the drive, and the bridge board can be removed.
From there you are left with a standard Sata data and power connection of the drive.
This can then be plugged into a pc tower system with Sata data connection and power feeds. and the drive should show its drive letter, and read and work as before.

It is common for the bridge board to blow, causing the drive not to be detected, or the drive shows in some cases but cannot be accessed properly.

There are many cases of this on the forums and it is the only way if a bridge board is used to get the drive to read or work again.
I have put a link to the image of the bridge board in question bellow.

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/wg-Lezceyh0/maxresdefault.jpg
 
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1. To check if your computer handles mass storage devices properly, try connecting some other means of storage, like and USB stick or a cellphone (in storage mode);

2. Does your external HDD enclosure have its own power supply? If it is supplied by USB, try a different port or even a wall charger;

3. Does it make any strange noises? You can usually tell if it is a drive failiure by listening to it. The disk will constantly spin fast then slow to a halt, sometimes with a click;

4. If you didn't already, try a different PC.
 
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Murissokah: 1. My flash drive works, as does my phone and ipod in mass storage mode. 2. No it's USB with no option for mains, I have more than ample power though its a gaming rig I spared no expense on. 3. Nothing sounds weird but the light is solid while windows does it's thing and then flashes constantly once it fails to detect. 4. tried already, still nothing.

Shaun, I would try that but as a last resort, I wouldnt want to open it just yet...
 
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When you see at "other devices", does it present an error code? Try removing every other thing USB (besides keyboard and mouse), then uninstall your USB controller using the device manager. Don't worry, if you lose mouse/keyboard in the process (I don't think you will), just boot up again.

Just for reference, the fact that it's good rig has nothing to do with USB power, since it is limited by your USB controller, not your power supply, and those are pretty standard. USB uses various power profiles, the more common of them limited to 100mA. Some equipments power up using a 100mA profile, then present themselves as a high power device (up to 500mA), and the OS provides that power profile if available. If there are more devices plugged in, it may be the case that there is no power budget left on the controller for a high power device. When this happens, though, you get an error like "USB device not recognized". This is the reason some external HDDs have two USB plugs.
 
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The drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28) is what i get on the properties of it :/

unplugged and re-plugged and got error code 1....

also to add to this, I went on Device Manager, Right clicked > Properties > Update Driver > Browse my Computer > Let me pick from a list of device drivers > USB Controllers and also tried Disk Drives. Both times it recognised as USB mass storage and prompted and install but the the same error appeared about the missing element or something...
 
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If other USB storage devices can properly install their mass storage driver, then so should your HDD. Manually installing the drivers may add to the confusion, so I'd recommend rolling back if available and uninstalling the drivers if not. Let it find the drivers automatically, if it doesn't then uninstall the driver and try again.

Please check that your "DevicePath" registry is correct at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion (32bit)
or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion (64bit)

It should read "%SystemRoot%\inf", without quotes.

USBSTOR.INF should be present in "C:\Windows\Inf\", if not, look into the driverstore folder for folder "usb.inf_amd64_19b305507fe5bafa\". If no folder like that is present, tell me your OS version so I can try to find you a copy.

Also, have you got this installed?

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/item/drive-settings-master-dl/

Maybe it can provide some more information, never used it though.
 
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It tried to install them when I plugged it in and momentarily flashed up in my Device Manager as a USB Mass Storage under the USB section. I quickly right clicked this and uninstalled it, hoping to remedy the problem, and this is what has brought me to the 'Other Devices > Expansion' scenario.

How do you mean check my device path? I went into REGEDIT and followed the path you wrote and it got me where you said... is that what you meant?

I have no USBSTOR.INF only .PNF :/ Like I said in another post I did try the INF PNF copy paste trick before coming here, but neither mine nor my GF's PC has an INF for some reason :/ It's Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit on both machines.

Downloaded the seagate software, will give it a whirl, although my drive worked without this software last time :/

Thanks for the help btw, appreciate it :)
 
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the device path was correct. just trying to download your link atm but it's being buggy and not starting the download :/

yeah it appears neither firefox chrome or IE like that page. will not let me download at all 🙁

ok got the file from a friends PC... still nothing. Always pops up in DM as Other Devices > Expansion and every time I try to update drivers (auto search, manual search, let me choose) it always realises it's a USB Mass Storage but returns the error 'There is no driver selected for the device information set or element.'

im beginning to think its knackered and breaking it open will be the only way....
 
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OK, quick update. Prised it open, Carefully removed the drive from its mount, slid it away from the SATA-USB Connector and hooked it up internally via sata just like my main HDD.... still not detected, nothing in Device Manager as unrecognised... PC loading MEGA slow though. Even in BIOS the only Sata device recognised was main internal HDD...

And another update, tried in ACHP (I think that was the initials anyways) mode, and BIOS hung on 'Auto-Detecting Sata 3 - ... ' eventually it loaded but still nothing in BIOS meaning it knew something was connected but it couldnt learn what. I've had the drive on the desk while it booted and it's definately spinning, it gives off slight vibrations in varying speeds but mostly constant... Is it Dead? 🙁
 
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Very likely. The mode is AHCI, which is fine. Please verify that your BIOS is set to allow hot-plugging, so you can boot normally and once the OS loads you can plug the drive without worry. I had it happen to me once and did just that so I could try many times until it worked.

Still, this drive is pretty much done, even if you get it to work once. My advice is to try what I wrote above if you need to save anything that's on it, then getyourself another one.
 
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there's nothing in my BIOS that resembles hot-plugging :/ damnit. It's not such a big loss for me, i only use it when backing my system up for a format but it had all my brothers coursework on it and im not sure what he has backed up :/
 
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