Can't see secondary drive anymore

Wow, coming in for the clutch.


I got a problem...before anyone posted any further assistance since my last post, I downloaded partition wizard.

It wasn't seeing the disk.

But I could view it in windows explorer.
So I unplugged the usb connection and dialed it up via SATA again, thinking maybe partition wizard would be able to see it.

To no avail, that didn't work.

So I went back and plugged it with the USB adapter.
It's not being recognized by explorer.
But I can see it in device manager as a general ATA ATAPI Device USB Device.


I've been trying to troubleshoot the problem for an hour, I don't know how to get partition wizard to see the drive.


Thanks for appearing out of nowhere. I appreciate it.

I was very confident since Windows Disk Management showed your drive with all four Partitions - the three RAW partitions even had drive letters - Partition Wizard will definitely run. That has been belied.

As ignatzatsonic said earlier, your HDD seems to have raced to its end faster than we could catch it, if what you describe is true.

Now what?

With the USB adapter try the HDD on another working PC. Can you see it in Windows Disk Management as before?

If not, connect it back as an internal Drive. No need to use the Sata to USB adapter which is an additional interface. Run the manufacturer's diagnostic/Repair utility . ( We do not know the HDD brand) and check the health of the drive.

If the manufacturer does not have a diagnostic/ repair Utility, then check your drive with Crystal Disk Info(or any other Utility mentioned here, How To Test The Health Of Your HDD Drive ) and report the results.

( One more thing I would like to add is before running Partition Wizard, reboot your PC, plug-in your HDD with SATA to USB adapter. Do not open My Computer, Device Manager, Windows Explorer, Windows Disk Management or any other program that will access the Disk. After booting straightaway run Partition Wizard and check whether it catches the drive. Sometimes other programs that you run may lock the drive and not release it for any other program.)

I tried hooking it up to a laptop,
it installed the drivers but in disk management, it came up as a "removable" drive (No Media).

I also tried partition wizard on that computer and got 0 results.

I tried Sea Tools for Windows for my Seagate drive in safe and normal mode.
It didn't see the drive.

But with Crystal Disk Info, it saw it. I'll let the picture do the explaining.
After that I opened up disk management and it was asking to initialize the drive, i pressed cancel.

I tried rebooting, and only running partition wizard. It couldn't see the drive.
I did hear the USB dongle sound when I plugged it in.

As I said earlier, your HDD seems to have raced to its end faster than we could catch it.

If Seatools for Windows for does not see the drive and if no other program also does not see the the drive, there is absolutely nothing we can do to recover the data. You have to seek Professional Data Recovery.( Whatever data you see about the drive nomenclature, the drive capacity etc., is gotten from the firmware/electronics from the PCB on the drive. Beyond that the physical HDD itself has gone dead - may be due to a deluge of bad sectors..)

As a last ditch attempt to see whether lady luck smiles on you, try to initialise the disk as an MBR when it asks you to initialise it. If initialisation goes through, stop with it. Do not create a simple volume. ( Don't worry. Just initialising only writes the MBR code into Sector 0 and doesn't do anything beyond that sector.So your data is safe.)

If initialisation does not go through and you only get an error message >>>>Professional data recovery.

( Remove your drive and do not do anything with it further if you intend to seek Professional Data recovery service.)

Try to report within the next ten hours, before I leave to the Airport.

Good luck.

it's visible by windows explorer again

it's hooked up via USB


i can see the 4 partitions on disk management

in crystal disk info, the health is still unknown
it still can't be detected by Sea Tools also

this is what it looks like in explorer

thanks a lot for doing this,
i know how it is the day before and of a flight

I contacted MiniTools and one of the customer service people told me to disconnect my multi card reader.

It seems to have given better compatibility to the drive as I can see my E: drive now but have a hard time accessing the files to copy over to a backup folder.

I tried minitools data recovery software out out of curiousity.

I clicked the damaged partitions option and the scanning for hardware kept getting stuck on 64%

i won't mess around anymore,

partition wizard wouldn't even start up.


I'll just disconnect the drive's power and sata cable and leave it in the computer for now.

My last post before I leave to the airport.

Now I want to check your Partition Wizard installation. You downloaded it even before we asked you to download it.

1..Please keep aside your SATA to USB adapter and the faulty HDD plugged into the adapter. Keep aside, Keep aside.

2. Plug out all devices connected to USB ports of your machine.You are allowed to keep only your USB Keyboard and USB mouse plugged in. All other USB ports on your machine should be empty. Check and double check that nothing other than your Keyboard and Mouse is plugged into the USB ports.

3. Run Partition Wizard.

Does it show your system drive as it shows my System drive below?



Post a screenshot. I also want to check the version you had downloaded.

If Partition Wizard does not show your system drive, then something is wrong with your Partition Wizard installation.

Let us check this first.

Okie dokes