My system backup failed, could not find external drive

Hello,

I run a system backup weekly using Widnows backup process. This has worked for a long time, but now it has failed. The external drive than I am using is no longer known to the system.

Using a LaCie 3TB conected via esata.

If I go into Computer Management and then disk management, I see the drive, but the system is saying that I have to initialize the disk.

This disk was working up untill recently. I lost the drive before and had to initialize it. Lost all my data.

I can intialize the drive, but work rather have it connect to my system as it once did.

I have had this problem a couple of times.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Stu

Offhand, it sounds more like a disk problem than a backup program problem.

Have you ever run any hard drive utilities (from LaCie or anyone else) on the drive?

Or checkdisk?

Post a picture of what you see in disk management.

FWIW I have a 2GB external Seagate esata. The native Windows 7 backup seems to be very picky when it comes to recognizing this HD using esata. Sometimes it's recognized and sometimes it's not. Doesn't seem to matter if I'm trying to restore a prevously made backup/image or create one. Never had the problem using the USB 2.0 cable.

If you switch to USB 2.0 is your LaCie recognized?