External Hard Drive Not Recognised Following Windows Update

[gregpalin]

Hi,

I'm new here, so please don't shout at me if I say something stupid.

Anyway, here's my problem:

I have a Maxtor 500GB stand alone hard drive which I originally bought for a Vista laptop, but have also been using it on my new Win7 laptop.

It has been absolutely fine for the 6 months that I've been on Win7, but today Windows Update decided that I needed 27 (count 'em!) updates to be installed an run - mostly for MS Office.

Anyway, the updates all installed and I restarted upon request, but since then my Maxtor hard drive has not been recognised.

A USB Unknown Device error appears, it doesn't list the drive in My Computer, and only appears in Device Manager as Unknown Device.

Any ideas of how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated, as I have a large number of important documents on that drive which I need to access relatively urgently.

many thanks

Greg

 

[FliGi7]

Is it connected via USB or eSata?

In the meantime, try right clicking on My Computer, Manage, Device Manager, then right click on the top-most entry and select "Scan for Hardware Changes".

 

[gregpalin]

Hi,

It's connected via USB (as it always was when it worked).

I've attempted the scan for hardware changes, but it didn't affect it.

thanks

 

[FliGi7]

Click on the start Orb, type "diskmgmt.msc", and hit enter. Is your external drive shown in there?

 

[SledgeDG]

Did you try to unplug it, shut down the power (if it has an external power source that is)
power it back up and connect to a different USB port yet?
I have to do that with my externals ~ once a month or so

BTW: are you sure the drive was running? For some reason they sometimes seem to miss the startup command

-DG

 

[gregpalin]

No, I tried that earlier.

It recognised my external DVD drive and iPod that were connected though.

 

[gregpalin]

Did you try to unplug it, shut down the power (if it has an external power source that is)
power it back up and connect to a different USB port yet?
I have to do that with my externals ~ once a month or so

BTW: are you sure the drive was running? For some reason they sometimes seem to miss the startup command

-DG

Yes, I always go for the turn it off and back on again option first!

It seems to be something that was caused by the Windows Update specifically.

 

[FliGi7]

Go back to Device Manager, right click on the Unknown Device and Uninstall. Then Scan for Hardware Changes again. See if that works.

 

[gregpalin]

Go back to Device Manager, right click on the Unknown Device and Uninstall. Then Scan for Hardware Changes again. See if that works.

Nothing again, I'm afraid.

 

[FliGi7]

(In my best tech support voice) Have you rebooted the computer since this started happening?

 

[gregpalin]

Yes, a couple of times.

 

[FliGi7]

Ok, does it show up in disk management?

 

[gregpalin]

No.
It's still generating a 'unknown USB device' bubble, and is listed as unknown in the device manager too.

Should I hit it with a hammer?

 

[FliGi7]

Do you have the ability to remove it from the enclosure and hook it up inside your computer?

 

[gregpalin]

No. It's always just been connected via USB and it's been recognised immediately.

Until today, that is...

 

[FliGi7]

Can you try plugging it in to another computer?

 

[gregpalin]

It hooked up with my knackered old Vista laptop!

 

[gregpalin]

OK. It's sorted.

The problems seems to stem from the power supply.

I swapped it with a more powerful one from my housemate's external hard drive and it worked straight away!

Not sure why this is suddenly a problem though.

Thanks for your help anyway - it's much appreciated.