Windows 7 does not find files on external drive

samik83

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Dec 19, 2008
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I had a system crash last day, so I installed a fresh copy of windows.

When I plugged in my external drive I can't find any files on it. When I check how much space is used, it shows me
well over 800 Gb. However, I can access the files just fine if I have the drive plugged in and powerd on during boot up. Then everything shows up normally. If I power off and on the drive, again nothing shows up.

Kind of annoying if you have to reboot everytime you want to use the drive.

The drive is buffalo 1.5TB USB 3.
I've installed USB 3 drivers that I found on mobo(Asus) manufacturers page.

Any suggestion?
 

almartin

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Apr 8, 2011
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If I get this right when you power off the drive and turn it back on nothing happens. Try unplugging the usb cable and boot in to windows and then plug in the usb cable and see it windows finds it.
 

samik83

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I tried it but the same thing happens. Actually unplugging the usb is the same thing as powering off the drive. Windows cant tell the difference. For me the USB is always plugged in and I just power off the drive, since Buffalo provides a handy switch for the power line where you can cut off the power.
 

samik83

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It's kind of curious whats happening....

I tried making new folders on the drive when its seemingly empty, it doesn't create it, nothing shows up.
But when I do the boot with the drive on, I find that the folders were actually being created. All the 3 new folders were there that didnt show up earlier.

For some reason it is not checking whats actually on the drive but I can still add files normally, nothing just shows up, untill I do the boot thing again.
On the old installation when ever I started up the drive it does this scan at the beginning to check for content which takes a few seconds. Now on the new installation it skips the scan completely.

Is there a setting somewhere that could cause this? I've tried uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling. On Asus download page there two different drivers for USB 3. Tried them both but no success so far.
 

samik83

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Now I have the same problem with my memory card reader, except changing the drive letter does not help. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers too but no help.

God I hate when I have to do a fresh install, nothing works the same as it used to.