seriously need help!!

[OurHayd23]

my toshiba external hard drive keeps coming up as local disk, everytime i click on it or right click it freezes my laptop! i have tried to go into disk management and moving the drive to another letter but it freezes and stay's on "connecting to virtual disk services" and when i go into task manager to end the task my computer freezes again and goes black screen. what can i do please, it's a 2TB hard drive and i cannot afford to loose everything on it.

 

[Dylan Smit]

Try it on another pc first

 

[BadAsAl]

What Dylan said... but if you don't have access to another PC:

You can create a Linux Live CD or USB and boot from that. See if you can see and access the external drive while booted into that. This will tell you if the files are still there, which will at least give you some peace of mind. You can even copy to another drive too.

Once you get all done and back up and running, you need to put together a backup scheme for the stuff on the external drive. If that is the only place you have that stuff then you are always in danger of losing it.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there OurHayd23,

That is unpleasant.
It will not hurt to use a different cable and attach it to another computer as the other guys said.
In case the issue persists, you can try some data recovery tools for DOS mode, as the OS ones could freeze when trying to access it. The one that BadAsAl suggested, is a good option.

If this doesn't work and given the fact that you can't afford to lose the data, you can consider contacting some data recovery company.

Keep in mind that you should always keep the most important data stored on at least two places and mechanical drives could fail without a warning.

Let me know in case you have some other questions,
D_Know_WD

 

[OurHayd23]

I tried plugging the external hard drive into another computer and I get the same result.
The files are still working on the external hard drive because it allows me to watch and play songs from the external hard drive it's self.

I just don't understand how this has happend and don't want to loose everything on the external hard drive when the files are still working, I haven't got enough memory on my computer to back the files up on to my computer.
I have tried all suggestions and the software's i use are not picking the external hard drive up! 🙁

 

[D_Know_WD]

How would they work while your system hangs even if you click on it.
What tools have you used? The fact that the drive is not picked up is not really a good sing.

Have you tried the Ubuntu Live CD approach: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode
In case you can access the drive with that, you should really find some storage space.
The drive is most probably failing and unfortunately, you will not be able to fix it. 🙁

D_Know_WD

 

[OurHayd23]

I have tried two recovery software's so far and have had no luck, the external hard drive works in my tv and the files on the external hard drive still work. I was thinking if i reset my computer completely would it then start to work again because I had 3 high virus's on my computer and everytime i start my chrome or microsoft edge browser up it comes up with http://www-searching.com/?prd=set_epc&s=G21zliubl0fg1,8916778c-4343-4d54-9b59-4a3eaf4814e5,?

I have also tried to get rid of this happening and having no look.
I was thinking if i reset my computer completely it may work.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Well, you've already tried the drive on another computer and it didn't work over there right? Because of that, I don't think that all of this is related to your system.

 

[OurHayd23]

aww 🙁 now and again i get a triangle on WPD FileSystem Volume Driver when the hard drive is in my computer.
I seen somewhere that is you delete all the grayed out drivers that it could work again. It's the external hard drive that's my main concern, with it still working in my tv but not the laptop

This accrued when my mate put the exteral hard drive in his laptop and then took it out while his laptop wasn't responding.