Maxtor external hard drive problems

[kevin_trainer]

Hi there,

1. For some time I've been using a maxtor external hard drive (previously with xp and now with windows 7)
2. It was working well, until the other day. Now the drive is listed within file manager (f:/) but I cannot gain access?
3. The only changes which have occured recently was the purchase of a (USB) memory card reader for use with a digital camera.

-Is there any way of accessing my hard drive?
-I have already got hold of a program which searches for and updates drivers, but that hasn't worked.
-I was also looking into obtaining some sort of recovery software, and this seemed to recognise the drive type and access the drive and display the contents, but It seems that I would loose all the file names (eg. thousands of mp3 tunes etc), not to mention the cost of the recovery software.
-Any further options I could take?

 

[Hawkeye22]

Was this an internal multicard card reader? Anyhow, be sure your card reader didn't accidently get assigned the same letter as your hard drive. When this happens, your hard drive will get assigned a new drive letter. This can mess up programs that expect data to be on that drive letter.

Does it work when you disconnect the card reader?

 

[kevin_trainer]

Hi there, and thanks for the response

1. It's a sole card reader.
2. When I've got them both plugged in, they both appear listed within windows file manager.
3. I've disconnected and reconnected both seperately and the external hard drive still gets listed windows file manager, but when you go to access it, you get a warning/error message (can't remember what it says off hand. will have to make a note of it next time)

Any other ideas?

Cheers
Kev

 

[Hawkeye22]

Does the drive function properly when the card reader isn't connected to the computer? That is can you actually transfer files to/from the drive?

If it doesn't work, you can try drive cleanup. Run it with the -T option first to see what changes it will make. Be sure that your external drive and card reader are disconnected from the computer when you run it. If you don't feel comfortable using it, I understand. I have used this in the past and it worked for me. Just so you know, if you do run this, any usb device that was previously plugged in will act like it's the first time being used on the computer. That is, you will see the "new hardware found" dialog when you plug your drive or any other deivce that wasn't connected at the time you ran the program.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/drivetools_e.html#drivecleanup

 

[kevin_trainer]

allo mate,

No, the large external hard drive cannot be accessed at any time. It's still listed in the file manager, but just can't access the content?.

I've come across a few things from the Seagate (they took over Maxtor) web site, which I'm going to try tonight. If that doesn't work I might try your method, see how it goes.

http://support.seagate.com/kbimg/flash/213055/213055_EN.swf

Anyway, thanks again.

 

[Hawkeye22]

I should mention that I always create a restore point before running the drive cleanup program just in case, but it hasn't failed me yet.

Good luck!

 

[kevin_trainer]

Best answer selected by kevin_trainer.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey