Help! My Ext HDD is reading as a DVD-ROM

[BLKV8SS]

I have an external Seagate HDD and only recently it has started appearing in Explorer as a DVD-ROM (with a H: Drive letter association.) I'm running Windows 8.1

Checking Device Manager shows the device as a Disk Drive, which is correct. I've tried disabling/uninstalling/reinstalling - keeps mounting as a DVD-ROM.

Checking Computer Management I do see the device listed as a DVD-ROM. Changing the drive letter does not help (changed from P to H earlier) and nothing can be changed from the Properties. Yes, I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the driver from here as well.

I've also connected the HDD to USB2 and USB3 ports on the back and front of the PC. Made no difference.

If I try to access the drive through CMD by typing in: cd H:/ it tells me 'the device is not ready'. Through PowerShell it tells me the H: drive does not exist.

If I recall correctly I may have put an ISO on the root folder of the drive, which I believe is causing the issue as it was an OS recovery image that may be trying to mount as a disk, but I can't access the drive to delete/move the file. I've read countless threads on the issue and no one has solved it. Formatting the device is not an option as it has a TB of personal data that can't be lost. This is my backup drive.

Can anyone one here help me return this to a HDD mount?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, BLKV8SS!

Good job with the troubleshooting so far! I'd recommend you to try uninstalling and reinstalling the USB hub drivers for your computer from the motherboard/PC manufacturer's website. You should be able to find the model there and check the USB driver updates. Even if it's up-to-date from there as well, I'd still recommend you to reinstall them.
Another thing you should try is connecting the external HDD to a different computer and see how it will get recognized there. You should also try running the manufacturer's diagnostic tool and check up on the SMART status and health of the drive. Hopefully, the utility will be able to detect it as an external.

Keep me posted with the results. Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[BLKV8SS]

Welcome to Tom's Hardware, BLKV8SS!

Good job with the troubleshooting so far! I'd recommend you to try uninstalling and reinstalling the USB hub drivers for your computer from the motherboard/PC manufacturer's website. You should be able to find the model there and check the USB driver updates. Even if it's up-to-date from there as well, I'd still recommend you to reinstall them.
Another thing you should try is connecting the external HDD to a different computer and see how it will get recognized there. You should also try running the manufacturer's diagnostic tool and check up on the SMART status and health of the drive. Hopefully, the utility will be able to detect it as an external.

Keep me posted with the results. Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

Thanks for the reply SuperSoph_WD,

I've just uninstalled/reinstalled all USB HUB drivers, thought just through scanning for new hardware. Appears to just pickup the native drivers from the driverstore. I have already tried a different PC and the same issue occurred, hence why I think the HDD is the issue (this also explains why the USB HUB drivers didn't fix it.) I ran a SMART check and both of the HDD's (internal and external) come back as OK. I just ran this through CMD and not any 3rd party sw. Lastly, I installed SeaTools from the Seagate website and confirmed it appears as a HDD. Run a 'Basic Tests - Fix All' test, which finished with a PASS. No other details available in the log files.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, BLKV8SS!

Well, in this case, you are right. The issue is most probably coming from the external HDD itself. However, running Check Disk from the Command prompt is not really recommended when you're trying to determine the damage on a hard drive. It might take longer but I'd also suggest you to run the long test from your HDD manufacturer's utility, it should provide you with the SMART attributes of the hard drive. Using third-party utilities to benchmark the results is also a good troubleshooting method, so I'd give it a try.

Let me know how it goes!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[BLKV8SS]

Hey there again, BLKV8SS!

Well, in this case, you are right. The issue is most probably coming from the external HDD itself. However, running Check Disk from the Command prompt is not really recommended when you're trying to determine the damage on a hard drive. It might take longer but I'd also suggest you to run the long test from your HDD manufacturer's utility, it should provide you with the SMART attributes of the hard drive. Using third-party utilities to benchmark the results is also a good troubleshooting method, so I'd give it a try.

Let me know how it goes!
SuperSoph_WD

I've just run the long test and it's returned as a PASS. Again, log file shows no details other than the PASS status.

Maybe I'm looking at this issue all wrong. Perhaps the DVDROM in my Explorer is actually my DVDROM and my real issue is that my HDD just isn't displaying in Explorer? Grasping at straws here, but looking at it in a different way I think I may be onto something. Do you have any suggestions for a HDD not displaying in Explorer, but it is showing in Device Manager? Again, drivers are fine drive letter is not the issue.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hi again, BLKV8SS!

I'd recommend you to go to Disk management and check how the external HDD appears there. I guess you might be able to get it accessible from My Computer/This PC again if you simply change the drive letter assignment for the external. Here's a tutorial from our knowledge base that can walk you through the steps: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=khbpcY

Hope this works for you. Keep me updated!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[BLKV8SS]

Hi again, BLKV8SS!

I'd recommend you to go to Disk management and check how the external HDD appears there. I guess you might be able to get it accessible from My Computer/This PC again if you simply change the drive letter assignment for the external. Here's a tutorial from our knowledge base that can walk you through the steps: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=khbpcY

Hope this works for you. Keep me updated!
SuperSoph_WD

Hi Soph,

The device does not have a drive letter assigned to it, therefore the option to change the drive letter is greyed out. The only available option that appears is 'Convert to dynamic disk', which then warns me about formatting, which I don't want to do.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

This seems very unfortunate, @BLKV8SS! Indeed converting a basic disk to dynamic would require you to reformat. I'd suggest you try using DiskPart in the Command Prompt line (Run as Administrator) to assign a different drive letter to the external from there. You can refer to this MS article for assistance with the procedure.

If that doesn't help, you can give some third-party data recovery tools a try. Here's a thread from the community for some suggestions on this matter as well.

Hope it helps. Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[jsmithepa]

If you are doing CD H: and can't find anything then perhaps that's not the HD, do you have an optical in your system? Are you running an ISO mount daemon?