Question External HDD not recognized, hampers reboot and blanks out disk mgmt

[cronecker]

My Silicon Power A80 worked fine on my Surface pro...until it didn't one moment to the next.
First issue observed: couldn't safely remove, the icon appeared but it didn't show the action. The action would pop up as soon as I plugged out the HDD.
Second issue: when trying to uninstall the driver, it needs to reboot. Can't seem to reboot with the HDD plugged in. When plugged out, it starts to reboot but not carry on with the uninstallation.
Third issue: When checking the disk management, it just shows up blank... So can't reassign a letter, partition it or whatever. Disk management works fine as soon as I unplug the HDD
Fourth issue: The HDD doesn't seem to be recognized at all. Can't access files this way. Strangely, it does show up in device management, saying it's working properly...
For some reason, there's two "D" drives popping up but explorer outright freezes when I try to open any. (see screenshot)

Not sure how to fix this one!!! I tried installing new drivers, windows updates, etc but so far no idea what causes this issue.
Please help, I'm travelling for a long period and I backed up all my photos and videos on this external drive.

Thank you so much

https://imgur.com/aIcybpz

 

[Satan-IR]

Have you connected it to another computer/system? Does it behave the same?

If possible use utilities like HD Sentinel or CrystalDiskInfo to check the SMART status of the drive.

Also try booting the Windows in safe mode. If the problems don't persist, that is, the drive is easily accessible and it doesn't freeze disk management and explorer and such the issue could be causes by a non-Microsoft or 3rd party driver or software.

Might not be a bad idea to scan the external drive and the system with something like MalwareBytes or other security app.

 

[cronecker]

Have you connected it to another computer/system? Does it behave the same?

If possible use utilities like HD Sentinel or CrystalDiskInfo to check the SMART status of the drive.

Also try booting the Windows in safe mode. If the problems don't persist, that is, the drive is easily accessible and it doesn't freeze disk management and explorer and such the issue could be causes by a non-Microsoft or 3rd party driver or software.

Might not be a bad idea to scan the external drive and the system with something like MalwareBytes or other security app.

Thanks for your reply!

Can't check that from here yet, unfortunately. Definitely want to try that though.

Tried the utilities, same freeze behaviour. They don't even start up when the HDD is plugged in.

Safe mode: only difference is that there was only one 'D' drive shown, but opening it made explorer crash all the same.

Malware bytes and Bitdefender can't scan the drive, as they don't recognize it.

 

[cronecker]

Ok so the hard drive causes the same issues on another laptop.
This is so strange, the drive is supposed to be shock resistant. Maybe the USB cable caused some damage on the drive's USB entry? I tried another cable and same issues too.

 

[popatim]

Drives die, that's why having backups is so important.
Is it still under warranty?

 

[cronecker]

Drives die, that's why having backups is so important.
Is it still under warranty?

I don't want to look like I'm in denial here but are these clear symptoms of a dead driver? It still powers on, there is a slight recognition by any computer but it just causes many things to freeze.
I bought it 8 months ago so yes, still under warranty!

Cheers

 

[Satan-IR]

Actually I have seen a few of these SP 'A' drives go bad kind of sooner than expected specially when it comes to the USB port/connection becoming loose and the whole thing going bad.

Consiering it makes another laptop go crazy, unfortunately, the drive is most probably broken beyond repair. Hope you can replace it or get a refund.

 

[SkyNetRising]

My Silicon Power A80 worked fine on my Surface pro...until it didn't one moment to the next.

Were you trying to check, how much shock it can withstand? You're not supposed to drop it.

*Product meets the test standard under normal use. Please do not deliberately drop or damage the product.

 

[cronecker]

Actually I have seen a few of these SP 'A' drives go bad kind of sooner than expected specially when it comes to the USB port/connection becoming loose and the whole thing going bad.

Consiering it makes another laptop go crazy, unfortunately, the drive is most probably broken beyond repair. Hope you can replace it or get a refund.

Damn, that would be very bad news. On a world trip right now and in danger of losing a large part of my photos I backed up on this drive of the first 4 months of my trip.

Were you trying to check, how much shock it can withstand? You're not supposed to drop it.

Nope, apart from taking it in a bicycle pannier bag and driving some bad roads with potholes. I'm trying to be careful for my stuff

 

[popatim]

Uhm, I believe you don't have the right idea of what a backup is. A backup in a 2nd copy of your data and never the only copy. You always want to avoid only have 1 copy of important files for the very reason you are experiencing: you never know when your drive will die. The more copies of your data on different devices, the safer it is from being lost.

Your data may be recoverable but from the sounds of it you will need to send it out for (expensive) repair & recovery.
Put the drive away and don't use it until you are ready to send it out. Pick up a new one or two to use.
If the data isn't worth the money, let us know when you get back home and maybe we can help diagnose & repair the issue. This may preclude you from sending the drive out afterwards; just so you make an informed decision.

 

[cronecker]

Uhm, I believe you don't have the right idea of what a backup is. A backup in a 2nd copy of your data and never the only copy. You always want to avoid only have 1 copy of important files for the very reason you are experiencing: you never know when your drive will die. The more copies of your data on different devices, the safer it is from being lost.

I know, but I've been waiting for Google to update their long awaited payment schedule for backup and I had some tech issues in the process of registering for it. And in the middle of it, this happens of course

Your data may be recoverable but from the sounds of it you will need to send it out for (expensive) repair & recovery.
Put the drive away and don't use it until you are ready to send it out. Pick up a new one or two to use.
If the data isn't worth the money, let us know when you get back home and maybe we can help diagnose & repair the issue. This may preclude you from sending the drive out afterwards; just so you make an informed decision.

I will try with Recuva but I don't think it will work as the drive makes the laptop freeze up.
Silicon power suggested the following:

"if you might have data concern, is it possible for you to send it back to Taiwan ?
It is still in warranty. If possible, you could send us the drive and we will try to make sure if it is possible to keep your data."

 

[USAFRet]

"pay google" ?
Backups are easily done, with free software and another storage location. Something you don't haul around in your pannier all the time.

"Shock resistant" is not "shock proof"

 

[USAFRet]

And no matter what type of device...USB stick, SSD, rugged HDD, server farm...all data needs a backup. All drives die, eventually.

One of my SSD's died recently, suddenly. Literally, in between a power OFF and power ON.
960GB drive, 605GB data...gone gone gone.

The nightly backup allowed me to recover 100% of the data, exactly as it was at 4AM that morning.

Why/how did it die? No idea, and more importantly, mostly don't care.
Gave SanDisk a list of all the things I tried, they said send it back.
They confirmed...it's just dead. They sent me a new one.

 

[cronecker]

"pay google" ?
Backups are easily done, with free software and another storage location. Something you don't haul around in your pannier all the time.

"Shock resistant" is not "shock proof"

What software would you suggest? I was thinking of using Google Photos but if you know something free and more practical, please tell me!

 

[USAFRet]

I use Macrium Reflect for this. The free version works just fine.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

 

[tony_parker]

If your external drive becomes unresponsive then there are chances that your external drive may become RAW or inaccessible. There are various reasons for this issue such as BIOS settings, USB data line, USB interface voltage variability, drive hidden issue, or compatibility issue, etc. Whatever be the reason, the end result is data inaccessibility or data loss.

You can try below options to solve the issue:

1. Establish a connection between another system and USB Data Line to verify whether it is broken or not.
2. Make sure the system and motherboard are compatible with each other.
3. Verify whether the USB interface voltage is up to the mark or not.
4. Use Disk Management to unhide the drive.
5. Ensure USB is enabled in Operating System as well as in BIOS.

If this also didn't work out, then I suggest you to check out the below blog to know the best possible ways on https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/usb-drive-is-corrupted-and-unresponsive-recover-files/

Hope this will help.