PC not detecting my 4TB

[James_134]

Hello again.
Yesterday I reset my PC and wiped my drives clean. When I started the processes I forgot that my 4TB had some videos I would like to keep, so I shut down the PC and unplugged the HDD.

Now after the reset I've plugged the HDD back in and it's not detecting it.

(I was about 5 minutes in to the reset when i unplugged the HDD)

 

[R_1]

do you have another device you could test the drive on, laptop, anything?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, James.

Since you've disconnected the drive from the motherboard and reconnected it again, I'd suggest that you check if the cables have been properly seated. You should also try the drive with a different computer to see if the same thing happens, or at least with a different SATA port on yours and different cables. Check if the drive is recognized by your BIOS/UEFI. If not, please check if the drive spins up when you start the computer.

Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Shaun o]

You have slightly confused me.

First of all you say you shut your system down and then removed your 4Tb hard drive from it, disconnected Sata data cable, and or power to the drive.

And right at the bottom of your post you then say 5 Minuets in to the reset you unplugged the the 4Tb hard drive.

Quote "(I was about 5 minutes in to the reset when i unplugged the HDD)"

I don`t understand how you could of if you already removed or disconnected the the 4Tb drive in the first place. ?

In any case if you did remove the Data or power cable to the 4Tb drive while the system was powered on.

It`s a safe bet you caused corruption of the data on the 4Tb disk drive James, or messed up the file allocation table of the 4tb drive.

If the drive is no longer detected in the bios of the motherboard it`s basically dead James. A paper weight.

It`s a big NO NO ! to disconnect a drive when the system is powered up.

Be it the Sata data cable or power connector to the drive, more so the power cable to be honest.

 

[Elizabeth Anderson]

If it's working on other machine then surely the drive has some problem. Or it might be that the power cable is faulty.

 

[James_134]

Hey there, James.

Since you've disconnected the drive from the motherboard and reconnected it again, I'd suggest that you check if the cables have been properly seated. You should also try the drive with a different computer to see if the same thing happens, or at least with a different SATA port on yours and different cables. Check if the drive is recognized by your BIOS/UEFI. If not, please check if the drive spins up when you start the computer.

And I do not have a PC that I can test it in. I'm the only one with a Desktop.

Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD

In the Bios:
In SATA3_5: WDC WD40EZRX (The WD 4TB)

I also tried changing what SATA port it went in. Still not detected in Windows.

 

[James_134]

"I forgot that my 4TB had some videos I would like to keep, so I shut down the PC and unplugged the HDD."

Then I said in brackets when I unplugged it. Just in-case.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

In the Bios:
In SATA3_5: WDC WD40EZRX (The WD 4TB)

I also tried changing what SATA port it went in. Still not detected in Windows.

Seems like the drive is recognized correctly in your BIOS, which is a good sign.
If you have the option, please try the drive with a different computer by connecting it either externally (via a SATA to USB adapter, external enclosure, or a docking station) or internally via a standard SATA connection, to see if the drive is properly recognized as a secondary storage HDD.
Is there important data on that drive, which you haven't backed up?

 

[James_134]

Seems like the drive is recognized correctly in your BIOS, which is a good sign.
If you have the option, please try the drive with a different computer by connecting it either externally (via a SATA to USB adapter, external enclosure, or a docking station) or internally via a standard SATA connection, to see if the drive is properly recognized as a secondary storage HDD.
Is there important data on that drive, which you haven't backed up?

Plugged it into my laptop with a USP adapter and got this:

But could not open it.

 

[R_1]

http://www.disk-partition.com/gpt-mbr/gpt-protective-partition.html

maybe this will help

 

[Boogieman_WD]

That's really unfortunate. 🙁

I guess you could try out @R_1 suggestion and hope for the best. Just please don't go for the first option as this will make it impossible for you to recover your videos. You could also check out the offered solutions from this thread: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2947800/read-data-gpt-protective-partiton.html. Hopefully you have more luck than @CausticLasagne with that.

Please let me know how it goes.

 

[James Bacon]

Well. I did what R_1 suggested and the space is now unallocated. But, that's only when plugged into my laptop with the USB connector. When I plug it into my PC it still doesn't show up.


EDIT: And yes, the BIOS says it's still connected.
EDIT2: I did the first option and then remembered there where more options :\ Not a big loss though so don't worry.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

If you've tried the first suggestions from the link, this unfortunately has most likely formatted the drive to the point where you probably won't be able to recover those videos. 🙁
If you've low level formatted the drive you have to initialize it and then partition and format it as you see fit. Try doing that via your laptop to see if the drive is recognized by the desktop computer afterwards. Here are the tutorial on how to initialize a drive and how to partition and format it: Initialize or write a signature to a secondary hard drive or Solid State drive in Windows and Partition and format a drive on Windows and Mac OSX

Let me know what happens.

 

[James Bacon]

Hello everyone!
Thanks for everyone's help but in the end I factory Restored my PC with the HDD plugged in and it is now detected.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Good job! 😉