External HDD gone invisible! Help!

[moqamar]

Hey guys, Ive gone and been a complete d***** by formatting my external HDD WD MyPassport 60Gb. Now it doesn't appear in My Computer when I connect or disconnect it, though it does make the "NEW HARDWARE FOUND" sound.

I'd be grateful for any helpful comments. I was trying to make it into a bootable drive for Win 7 64 Bit as my Vista 32 Bit has gone corrupt, and I need to fully utilise my 4 GB RAM.

Thanks alot!

 

[FreeDataRecovery]

Does it appear in Disk Management?

Have you tried it on another PC?

Note you can not run Windows from an external USB drive.

 

[moqamar]

Which disk management software?

I have, and it doesnt show up...after all the "new hardware detected!" and "Your device is now installed and ready for use" cr**

I think it is possible, you'll find plenty of guides if you google it

 

[FreeDataRecovery]

Windows Disk Management. Right click Computer and select Manage.

If you reformat it again do you see the same problem? If so run WD diagnostics on the drive.

Yes but running a full Windows installation from USB is not supported by Microsoft.

 

[moqamar]

I reformatted it in Windows Disk Management, worked out just fine

Thanks!

 

[moqamar]

Best answer selected by moqamar.

 

[Alex Bruzzo]

I went through the disk manager and followed all directions stated in the answers and found that I had to add one more step because I was repurposing a hard drive from use with a charter DVR: unallocate the partitions by right clicking and then create a simple drive the size of the entire hard drive and violá. Done.