Question How do I get my external HDD back?

[Beachhead1985]

Obviously.
How else are you going to access data on the drive?

I don't know. I'm sorry if that was a stupid question.

My biggest screw-ups typically come when I think I'm doing something correctly; like assigning a drive letter and then I do that it turns out to be the *obviously wrong* thing to do, but I didn't know that at the time.

I was thinking maybe that's contraindicated for removables.

 

[Beachhead1985]

Excellant! This seems to have it working now.