External Hard drive doesn't show up!

[Pimjong]

Hello guys,

I have a problem. Whenever i plug in my external hard drive (1TB Maxtor) in my pc, it doesn't show up. It has always been working, but since i've installed Windows 7 yesterday it doesn't work anymore. So it HAS to be something to do with Windows 7.

Anyone knows any solution? Please help me, because all my documents are stored on this external hard drive and i need them on this pc.

Thanks,
Pim

EDIT:
It does show up in disk manager (don't know how it's called in english, i use dutch windows 7) and it even shows the model and brand name of the drive. So i am wondering why it won't show up in explorer?

 

[Ch@n]

Welcome aboard. Did you try with a diff USB port?

 

[Pimjong]

Thanks .

Yes, i've tried 4 different USB ports, but nothing changes. Strange thing is, i can 'safely remove' my hard drive. So my pc does really recognize it, but it just doesn't show up.

 

[aem]

When u insert the device, does it look like W7 is scanning it, or it doesn't even scan (knows that a USB device has been inserted)?

 

[Pimjong]

When u insert the device, does it look like W7 is scanning it, or it doesn't even scan (knows that a USB device has been inserted)?

It does know that a USB device has been inserted because it does show up in disk manager, hardware manager or however thats called in english. Also, when i insert the external hard drive, the button with the 'safe remove' thing shows up in my taskbar.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Quite a common problem

Just go into Control panel===>administrative tools==>Computer management==>Disk management

Now you'll probably see your disk WITHOUT a Letter

Give it a drive letter and you are up and running.

This often happens if you swap different usb disks especially between systems as the Drive letter sometimes gets "hosed up".

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Pimjong]

Thanks, but didn't work. Maybe it's just me, but i can't give it a drive letter?

Here's a screenshot (in Dutch xD):

 

[1Bowtie]

Hi Pim Welcome to SevenForums

Not sure why you are looking at it in disk mgt, if you want to see whats on it shouldn't you be in IE, open IE then plug in USB cable (makeing sure connections are good) it will recognize the drive and you can open the tree.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Right mouse click on the 931 GB partition and then assign drive and letter

I assume that's a Primary partition and it's already been formatted .

It should work.

Here's a screen dump of what you should get.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Pimjong]

Hi Pim Welcome to SevenForums

Not sure why you are looking at it in disk mgt, if you want to see whats on it shouldn't you be in IE, open IE then plug in USB cable (makeing sure connections are good) it will recognize the drive and you can open the tree.

Sorry for being such a dumbass , but what do you mean by IE? 'cause I'm pretty sure you dont meant internet explorer xD.

Hi there
Right mouse click on the 931 GB partition and then assign drive and letter

I assume that's a Primary partition and it's already been formatted .

It should work.

Here's a screen dump of what you should get.

Cheers
jimbo

It's a primary partition, and it's been formatted to NTFS. The problem is, when i right click the partition, all the options are unclickable. All i can do is remove it, but i don't know if that is a good idea .

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
I think the EFI system partition (whatever that is) is hosing this up.

What I would do is download GPARTED and re-partition the HDD with NTFS - you can split into different partitions.

GParted -- Download

Burn GPARTED to CD and then boot it with your external disk plugged in.

(Note save any data before you re-format -- if you've got a laptop with XP or whatever save any data on to that).

Re-partition the HDD and then boot again into windows.

There's no problem with W7 and large HDD's -- I've got 2 X 1.5 TB's no prob.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[1Bowtie]

Jimbo45 unless i'm misunderstanding his first post he's trying to plug in a USB drive? The one he's looking at in disk mgmt is an internal drive. I've never seen a usb drive that big. Just a question that can be answered by thread starter

 

[Pimjong]

Jimbo45 unless i'm misunderstanding his first post he's trying to plug in a USB drive? The one he's looking at in disk mgmt is an internal drive. I've never seen a usb drive that big. Just a question that can be answered by thread starter

It's a 1TB external hard drive, so it's the right one .

Anyway, i might try to format / partition it later, but i dont have any computer at the moment to work with. Maybe ill just load ubuntu on this pc, put the files from the external hard drive (if it does work with ubuntu) on the internal hard drive and then format it and stuff. But maybe someone knows some other options, because i am affraid it wont solve it. I've used the hard drive the same day i installed windows 7, so it pretty much has to have something to do with windows 7.

 

[jimbo45]

Jimbo45 unless i'm misunderstanding his first post he's trying to plug in a USB drive? The one he's looking at in disk mgmt is an internal drive. I've never seen a usb drive that big. Just a question that can be answered by thread starter

Hi there
There's plenty of USB 1TB external drives around these days - quite cheap as well.

BTW Disk Mgmt screen doesn't distinguish between internal and external HDD's - just numbers the drives sequentially.


Shouldn't be any problem having a Linux OS also on the HDD -- W7 normally hasn't got any problem with USB external drives apart from sometimes losing the Drive letter which should be fixed as in my previous posts.

I've run out of ideas now I'm afraid.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Pimjong]

Jimbo45 unless i'm misunderstanding his first post he's trying to plug in a USB drive? The one he's looking at in disk mgmt is an internal drive. I've never seen a usb drive that big. Just a question that can be answered by thread starter

Hi there
There's plenty of USB 1TB external drives around these days - quite cheap as well.

BTW Disk Mgmt screen doesn't distinguish between internal and external HDD's - just numbers the drives sequentially.


Shouldn't be any problem having a Linux OS also on the HDD -- W7 normally hasn't got any problem with USB external drives apart from sometimes losing the Drive letter which should be fixed as in my previous posts.

I've run out of ideas now I'm afraid.

Cheers
jimbo

Ok then, i'll try it with linux os and then formatting it. I'll post if it worked!

Cheers

 

[Pimjong]

UPDATE:
I just started Ubuntu from a live-cd and checked the external hard drive. It does work, and i can acces my files, but apparently it has a lot of bad sectors. Luckily ubuntu told me that .
So, i'm now copying all the files to the internal hard drive, and will totally format the external hard drive after that. That will be, after about 5 hours (yes, there's a lot of stuff on my external hard drive ). Anyone knows if that will solve the problem, or that i have to just buy a new hard drive because this one is about to fail?

 

[1Bowtie]

Pimjong i have a 500 gig external hd and i just plug it in, it gets recognized, i go to Windows Explorer and read, move, etc without prob's. Might be worth a try before moving everything.

 

[Pimjong]

Well, the problem is, i can't open it up in Explorer since i've installed Windows 7... So i dont think i have many choices left... Anyway, just 45 minutes left and everything is on my internal hd. Then HOPEFULLY it works in 7 after formatting..!

 

[1Bowtie]

Sorry i couldn't be more help Pimjong just one of those probs with no simple fix. Good luck with the move and format.

 

[Pimjong]

Hehe yeah no problem . Maybe i'll buy a new internal hd soon, these hd movie's really are huge .

UPDATE:
Just 30 minutes left xD. Then i can finally format the hard drive and get on Windows 7 again .