External hard drive not being detected

[Cassie1994]

Hi,
I have been using my Iomega HDD for a while now and have never had any problems before today.
It worked fine when connected to my Acer Netbook running windows 7 starter 32 bit. I connected to a friends laptop and it said to access it it must be formatted, so i bought it home and it said the same thing, to access it must be formatted.
I have attempted to format it numerous times and each time it says windows is unable to complete the format..
I disconnected it (safely ) and restarted the computer before connecting it again and now it is not being detected.
Any solution ideas would be greatly appreciated
Thankyou

Now it's not being detected by my Acer Netbook.. The light on the hard drive is on.. but nothing is happening on computer..
not being detrected in Disk Management either..

 

[Cassie1994]

Now it's not being detected by my Acer Netbook.. The light on the hard drive is on.. but nothing is happening on computer..

 

[Alsisgevat]

Hi, welcome to Seven Forums

Have you tried a different usb port?
How many other hdd's do you have installed?
When you insert the hdd,does it give you in the right bottom corner any kind of error messige or "windows cannot install..." ?

 

[Cassie1994]

I've tried it on numerous USB ports on numerous computers. this is the only external HDD i have.

 

[Cassie1994]

there's no error mesaages.. its not being detected at all

 

[Alsisgevat]

...And it doesnt show up under disk manage at all? Cause if it did you just need to enable it. But if it doesnt show up...um, how old is the external?

 

[Cassie1994]

i bought it a couple of years ago..
it doesn't show up anywhere.

 

[Alsisgevat]

Thats weird mate, I hope someone else can help you better,but it seems like a dead drive, even if the light shows up it only means its getting power,but if it doesnt sho up on any pc,I am guessing it gave up,so bad news is you need a new hdd, or get another external casing first,and put that hdd in there,maybe it's just the usb port,connection or something small.

Sorry I cant help more,but I am out of answers on this one

 

[Cassie1994]

Thanks for trying to help

 

[Cassie1994]

I''ve just restarted the computer and it has appeared in device manager. i still can't format it though. would it be corrupted or something?

 

[Alsisgevat]

Nah,open it in device maniger,change letter path,and perform a format,or just right click quick format.

 

[Cassie1994]

It still won't format it

 

[Alsisgevat]

Try uninstalling reinstalling(device maniger,open that hdd,properties,uninstall) Then reinstall

 

[Cassie1994]

Did that, still can't access it without formatting it and i am inable to format it

 

[Alsisgevat]

I searched a while a found answers on Microsoft's website,but I tried it and it only worked on xp,not win7, sorry mate, I think that hdd is trashed, unless you can put it in a new formatted pc from start up,and then select it in bios to format(ie use it as an internal hdd) I think buying a new one is the option