External Hard Drive Issues

[Shinrabansho]

I'm currently trying to use a Seagate External hard drive, model no. srd00f2. I have used it before but just recently decided to start moving files to an external location. However, when I plugged in the hard drive and it turned on my computer will show it in the devices but does not recognize it in the My Computer tab. It won't let me move any files or save anything new to it. I have been searching for awhile but can't figure out what's going on. I tried updating the drivers but they are "up to date" and I have looked in the "Disk Management" tab under the Computer management setting. I just want to be able to use my External hard drive again. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[JaredDM]

It's a Seagate, so in all likelihood it's alredy failed. Their quality has plummeted to the bottom of the barrel in recent years with some models seeing as high as 40% annual failure rates under heavy usage. Do you need data from it?

 

[Chicano]

You said you looked in Disk Management but not what you saw.. so, does the HDD appear there, does it show in NTFS, in RAW, does it have drive letter/s?

If it was working normally the last time you used it, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to recover data from it, and even restore it to working condition.

1. If it shows in Disk Management;
a) with drive letter/s = Run CHKDSK on it from a command prompt window with CHKDSK X: /R (where X is the drive letter)
b) without drive letter/s = Assign drive letter/s and see if it is now accessible and if not, run a CHKDSK on it.

2. If it doesn't show in Disk Management: Download and burn the Hiren's Boot CD/USB
a) Boot Hiren's and run a program called Partition Find and Mount, it may find lost partitions and prompt you to mount it with a drive letter.. after that it may be accesible
b) If a did not help, find in Hiren's a program namee Disk Genious/ now Partition Guru, and selecting the HDD (not partitions) run a scan. It should find partitions and show the data contained in it, and let you recover it.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, Shinrabansho!

This seems pretty unfortunate! I'd recommend you try to access your external drive from a different computer and also try swapping the USB cable that is connecting it. You mentioned that you have checked Disk Management, so how does the external drive show up there?
I'd also strongly recommend you to run your HDD manufacturer's brand-specific diagnostic tool because it will help you determine your drive's health and SMART status. If you gain access to your files sooner, back them up somewhere else immediately!

Hope it helps. Keep us posted!
SuperSoph_WD