goflex hard drive dissappeared

[nomad_mali]

Laptop went into a sleep mode with external hard drive (seagate goflex) plugged in. When i turned the laptop back on the light and motor for the goflex sounded normal but the drive did not appear. It shows up in my devices but not in the storage section of my disk management, minitools also cant not seem to find it, and i have not been able to find a way to assign a letter please help, thank you

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey nomad_mali. I'd recommend that you try the drive with another computer to see if the same thing happens. I'd also suggest that you try it with a different USB cable (not longer than 12") just in case, although it doesn't seem very likely for it to be at fault, but you never know. I'd also download the manufacturer's diagnostic tool and see if it detects the drive and test the HDD with it to see if there's anything out of the ordinary.

Hope that helps. Keep me posted.
Boogieman_WD

 

[nomad_mali]

3 computers 4 or 5 cables also tried zeroing out the usb ports with a mouse. Im able to see the drive in disk management but it needs to be initialized but initialized is greyed out when o right click it

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hmm, check out this thread: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-hardware/harddrive-initializing-is-greyed-out/d0354394-68e4-4a9d-92d2-6f657095433f

It might prove useful for your case.

 

[nomad_mali]

Sadly it did not help

 

[fzabkar]

@nomad_mali, it appears that your computer is detecting the USB-SATA bridge IC but not the HDD behind the bridge. Your only DIY chance for data recovery would be to attach the drive directly to a SATA port on your computer's motherboard.

 

[nomad_mali]

So popping it out of its case?

 

[fzabkar]

AFAIK, some GoFlex drives have a detachable adapter that exposes the drive's SATA pins. If your does not, then you will need to remove it from its enclosure, but this will void your warranty.