Hard Drive not showing up in "My Computer'

[AllyCat8586]

Hi. I have a portable Hard Drive that is split into 2 partitions and I cannot format this drive due to stuff that I don't want to delete and lose forever. My hard drive is recognized in Disk management and Drive Manager and the Safely Remove Hardware icon is showing up in notification center. But this drive will not cue Auto Play(which it use to) and it will not show up in "My Computer". When I log off and switch to a different user on my PC it will show up perfectly fine and work as it should. I am seriously confused as to why this is happening and would really like to know how to fix it. Before anyone mentions Drive letters and such...YES it has a drive letter and is Healthy, Active, Primary Partition.

 

[Captain_WD]

Hey there,

Have you tried to see if you have this problem on other computers with multiple accounts?
You could try checking your administrative settings for your accounts (check how to do that on Microsoft's site, depending on which windows you are using or ask here ). The ability to work with peripheral devices might be disabled for that particular account. Also I wouldn't hurt to try different USB ports (both front and back) and see if that solves anything.

Keep me posted on how this is going,

Captain_WD.

 

[AllyCat8586]

Hey there,

Have you tried to see if you have this problem on other computers with multiple accounts?
You could try checking your administrative settings for your accounts (check how to do that on Microsoft's site, depending on which windows you are using or ask here ). The ability to work with peripheral devices might be disabled for that particular account. Also I wouldn't hurt to try different USB ports (both front and back) and see if that solves anything.

Keep me posted on how this is going,

Captain_WD.

I have tried all the different USB ports with the same problem. And if the hard drive works for a different user then I'm sure it will work on a completely different computer. Like I said, the computer does recognize it under Disk Management and Drive Manager, but it will not trigger the "Auto Play" (settings for Auto Play are to pop up for every device) or show up in "My Computer".

The computer is running Windows 7 Ultimate. How can I see if the ability to work with peripheral devices is disabled or not?

It might be useful to mention that I recently fixed a virus on the computer this is happening on. It was a virus that effected the exe files of every program and made the Windows Media Center open automatically or when an exe file was clicked. I fixed the virus by changing the registry files. After that is when this hard drive issue began. So I'm guessing something I did to fix virus caused it, but I just don't know what. Any ideas?

 

[Captain_WD]

I don't think the registry could affect only one account but you could try these steps and see if any of this helps (it's a bit long):

1. Make sure AutoPlay is used for all media type and devices
Control Panel -> Programs -> Default Programs select Change AutoPlay settings
The checkbox for Use AutoPlay for all media and devices is ticked (enabled).
You could also click Reset all defaults and return AutoPlay settings to its original factory defaults.

2. Make sure Shell Hardware Detection service is running properly.
Type Services in the start search panel and run it to start Services console. Once there, locate Shell Hardware Detection and make sure the Service Status is Running/Started and Startup Type is Automatic

3.Ensure that CD-ROM AutoRun is not disabled in the registry (in case you have problems with the optical drive too)
Run Registry Editor (regedit) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom registry subkey.
Locate the AutoRun registry value in the right pane, and check that the value data for AutoRun is set as 1 (one), representing enabled. If it is 0 (zero), which mean disabled CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive AutoRun process, re-enable the AutoRun by changing the value to 1.

4. Make sure NoDriveTypeAutoRun and NoDriveAutoRun policy registry value data is correct.
In case you are using some software such as mounting .iso files programs, Rhapsody, VMWare and others, this could cause such problems. Such programs change this policy to avoid conflicts with the system. Unistalling such software might help in some cases. Other times he problem would persist and you'd need to use System Restore to earlier Restore Point where the particular software was not installed. I WOULD RECOMMEND DOING A FULL BACKUP IN CASE YOU ARE DOING THAT.

NoDriveTypeAutoRun registry key is used by Group Policy to configure whether to disable the Autoplay feature on all drives of the type specified. To check this setting, run Registry Editor (regedit), and navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
or (note that above registry value, if exists, will always supersede the below user-specific key),
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Locate the NoDriveTypeAutoRun registry entry on the right pane. The registry key is in DWORD hexadecimal value, which each bit determines which type of drive to disable or enable AutoPlay feature. There are many possible value for NoDriveTypeAutoRun, some possible NoDriveTypeAutoRun registry value data includes:

0×00000000 (0) enable all AutoPlay and AutoRun.
0×00000080 (128) disable AutoPlay on unknown reserved file type.
0×00000091 (145) default in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
0×00000095 (149) default in Windows XP.
0×000000B5 (181) disable AutoRun on CD-ROM drives, plus default unknown drive, removable drive (meant for floppy or ZIP), network drive and reserved drive type.
0×000000FF (255) disable AutoRun/AutoPlay on all drive types.

Thus, if the NoDriveTypeAutoRun registry value data is set to 0x000000B5 (181) or 0x000000FF (255), which disables AutoRun/AutoPlay on most or all drive types, the AutoPlay won’t work when a drive is connected.
The best bet is to set NoDriveTypeAutoRun to default value as set by Windows 7 and Vista, which is 0×00000091 (hexadecimal) or 145 (decimal). Previous Windows version such as XP uses 0×00000095 (hexadecimal) or 149 (decimal). To enable AutoPlay on all drive types, set NoDriveTypeAutoRun to 0 (zero) or 0×00000080 (128) which only disable AutoPlay on unknown reserved file type.
NoDriveAutoRun registry key, which stored at the same registry location, meanwhile determine whether a particular connected drive should run AutoPlay function or not. When AutoRun is enabled on the drive, media is automatically started when it is inserted in the drive.
By default, Windows 7 and Vista does not add any NoDriveAutoRun registry subkey. And you probably don’t want to block any drive from AutoPlay too. So remove and delete all NoDriveAutoRun key in the registry.

Hope any of this helps! Check back with the results,

Captain_WD.