External hard drive problem

My Xternal hard drive that I have had for awhile,is being dropped while I am using it.Then when I go back to open it again,it is not even listed on my computer. I have windows 7 ultimate 64.It is a small drive HDDgear is the name.I have un plugged it and tried it on another computer with XP and it works fine,not dropped.I have changed ports also.

First and simplest thing to try (after trying another USB port which you have already done) is to delete its entry from device manager.
The following is based on the fact that your second computer can see the drive, and this in theory eliminates the possibility that the HDD might be broken.

Unplug your HDD first.
Click on your Start menu and then right click on Computer. Underneath the top option, which is 'Open', you'll have Manage. You may need to click 'Allow' or 'Yes' if User Account Control pops up a box.

In the Computer Management window you should see three panes, or three columns. The left pane is the one we want first, and toward the bottom it will say 'Device Manager', and if you click on that the middle pane will change to show a long list of items. You want to click on Disk Drives.

I am hoping that although you cannot see your drive in normal use, that Device Manager will still display it. If it does, then simply right click on your HDD which is not being detected and select Uninstall. This will then remove the drivers for that drive.
When it is complete (it should take just a few seconds), plug the HDD back in and hopefully Windows will be able to find it.


If the drive does not show up in here either, of course let us know.

No, the first a simplest thing to do is, disconnect the drive and reboot Windows...

They have already unplugged the drive when they tried it in another machine, where it worked.

Before I uninstall anything,I opened manage and checked the disc drives, and the hard drive is not even showing up there with it turned off.So, should I continue and unplug it and uninstall?

It won't show up if it's turned off, only if it's plugged in and switched on.

Then how is it going to show up if it is unplugged?

Ah, sorry! I said to unplug it first didn't I?

You unplug it after clicking uninstall. Then plug it back in and Windows thinks it's a new drive.

Well if it is not showing up and it is still plugged in,I don't see how it will be there if I unplug it. But I did and it does not show up, so what do I click on to uninstall it???? I'm really sorry to be to dense.

This is what I feared; Windows has completely lost its ability to see the drive. I dare say it might be worth trying what the other poster suggested and rebooting (if you haven't already).

Your other option is to look in Disk Management; the steps for getting there are the same before, only instead of looking for 'Device manager' in the left hand pane you'll be looking more toward the bottom for 'Storage', and then clicking on that will bring up a middle pane saying 'Disk Management'. Double-click this to display all drives currently connected and registered by the system.

There is a small chance your drive will show up here as something like an 'Unrecognised Volume', or 'Unallocated'. If this is the case, it means that Windows is completely unable to detect the written volume on the hard drive.


I unfortunately don't know how to solve this.

I do appreciate your help. Unfortunately it is not listed. Before I moved it to the other computer,it worked just fine.I just needed to find something on the hard drive that windows 7 would not let me open.When I moved it back is when I started having trouble.It will work for awhile after I turn it back on,but then it gets dropped.I'll get a new hard drive and see if I can transfer the files.Thanks again