external drive could not be seen anymore

Jerald · 18 Oct 2015

Hi,

I also had similar problem regarding my external HDD so I register here and hoping that we can fix it. I have a Transcend Storejet 1TB external HDD. I am using a VMWare that was inside my hdd. I closed down the screen and accidentally the cable was detached from my laptop usb socket and when I plug it back my external drive could not be seen anymore in My Computer. Disk Management says uninitialized. I believed there was no problem with the cable because Device Manager can see the Transcend Storejet in the list of disk drives. I can also see the taskbar for Safely Remove notification.

Here is the screenshot of the Disk Manager

Here is the Disk Management

Note that I already used the Magic Partition Wizard. However, the tool did not detect my external hdd.

Wishing and hoping that I can get my hdd working again. There are lots of files I stored in there.

copiman · 19 Oct 2015

Take a look at this.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com...7itprohardware

jumanji · 19 Oct 2015

That was a good reference by copiman and I have bookmarked it.

Now it assumes that something may not be alright in your PC and delineates the various procedures to correct it.

To cut short, we always recommend that you try the external HDD on another working PC. If the HDD functions right on another PC, then you should go through all the above procedures,

If your external HDD does not function in another working PC too, then the fault is definitely on your HDD and not your PC and so you need not go through all the procedures mentioned therein. ( Of course there is no harm if you want to do it all.)

So try your Transcend external on another good PC. If it does not work there also and shows that is unknown and not initialised , then,

Go ahead and initialise your drive as MBR but stop with initialisation only and close any further dialog box. Do not proceed further to create a new volume and do not format it.

Note: Initialisation only writes the MBR code in Sector 0 and that does not affect your data that starts at Sector 63/2048 onwards..

So go ahead and try to initialise the drive and report what happens.

( If initialisation is successful then stop with it. We can then run Partition Recovery Wizard and get the partition data also written into sector 0.

If initialisation is not successful and you get an error message, then it means that the SATA to USB bridge/HDD inside the enclosure has failed. If you want to recover the data you may have to take the HDD out, hook it up as an internal drive on a desktop and check. If the HDD is good you may be able to recover the data. )

Jerald · 20 Oct 2015

Ok, I'm here at the computer shop using a desktop computer. I plugged my external and went to disk management.

I cannot initialised it because of the Cyclic Redundancy Check. I tried it twice, no luck.

I will go home and try to open my hdd and see if what I can do.

jumanji · 20 Oct 2015

Ok. That is bad indeed.

Now let us hope that it is the interface card inside that has gone bad and not the HDD.

Carefully pry open the enclosure , take the HDD out and plug it into the motherboard SATA port on a desktop and check.

Provided it is not the HDD that has gone bad, your drive should show up and the data in it accessible.

Be aware that doing that will void any warranty. So do it only if you do not want to go in for a warranty replacement.

Jerald · 21 Oct 2015

One question, I'm already away from the desktop computer. I' only using a laptop as of the moment. I'm not sure if there's a SATA port on my laptop?

I think I need to buy a usb+sata cable.

jumanji · 21 Oct 2015

Ideally, it should be connected directly into the SATA port on the motherboard without another "unknown" interface inbetween in order to determine whether the HDD is good or faulty.

Try and check whether any of your friends have a self-assembled PC and can help you. Otherwise check with your friendly neighbourhood computer shop.

If the HDD is accessible with a direct connection, then you may buy a branded enclosure and put the HDD inside. I consider a USB-to SATA adapter as a dirty and less than desirable connection since it will leave your HDD open and susceptible to damage.