external HDD not detected

[himanshuvyas]

hello,
i am new to this forum & want to solve a problem about my external HDD.
the HDD is a make of I OMEGA & is of 320 gb capacity..
i am running on windows 7 home basic on dell laptop..
i have tried different usb ports but still the problem is same..
whenever i attach the HDD it plays the sound of device attached but nothing gets appeared on my computer..
i am posting some screenshots which may help to solve the problem..
as you can see the HDD can be seen in device manager & disk management tool..but there are no options to recover or open it.. i have tried to uninstall the driver & reinstall it..
any help would be appreciated..

 

[bigmck]

You need to format the HDD and give it a Drive Letter. If you are not familiar with adding a drive letter, see this tutorial http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/82994-drive-letter-add-change-remove-windows.html You can Format the drive using Disk Management, but I prefer to use http://partitionwizard.com/index.html There is less chance of an error. Just download the Home Edition free file and burn to a CD. It will be a Bootable CD. You can then boot and format the HDD.

 

[jumanji]

Hi Himanshuvyas,

If you have any data on that external HDD, then do not format.

Download and run Partition Wizard Home edition 8.1.1 Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online

Select your external drive in it and run Partition Recovery Wizard.

Partition Recovery>Full Disk>Next> Quick Scan>Next

If you can see all partitions, put a tick mark against all and each partition shown. Check that the bottom disk map shows all partitions. Better post a screenshot at this stage and proceed after further instructions.

Further steps you would execute after instructed to do so:

Click on Finish.

That should take you back to the main screen.

Does it show all partitions on your external drive?

Does the lost partition now has a drive letter?

If not right click on it and assign a drive letter.

Click on Apply on the top menu bar for the changes to take effect.

Close Partition Wizard and reboot.

It may also be necessary to "Rebuild MBR" but let us see as we chug along.

 

[himanshuvyas]

hi all,
first of all thanks a lot for giving a quick reply..
i think you both are trying to say me to run partition recovery wizard..
as said by jumanji i have very important data on disk so i don't want to format it..it would be the last option for me..
for now i am posting the screenshot of partition recovery wizard so that you can see my external HDD is not listed in that..
eager for your reply.. thanking you in meantime..

 

[jumanji]

I am wondering whether you have connected your IOmega external drive at all.

OK , Shut down your laptop. Plug out your external drive and then plug it in. ( Just to make sure you have plugged it in. )

Boot and check.

1. Does it show up in Windows Disk Management and Device Manager as shown in your first post? YES/NO

2. Run Partition Wizard now and check. Does your external drive show in it? YES/NO

If YES, post a screenshot but post the screenshot of only the PW window and not the full screen for clarity.

Do it now and post your answers.

 

[jumanji]

The HDD, 320 GB shows in Disk Management as unallocated. It needs to be formatted and assigned a letter. That is all it needs.

The OP has said " .....i have very important data on disk so i don't want to format it..it would be the last option for me......"

Do you want him to format the drive and then recover the data from the formatted drive?

 

[bigmck]

The HDD, 320 GB shows in Disk Management as unallocated. It needs to be formatted and assigned a letter. That is all it needs.

The OP has said " .....i have very important data on disk so i don't want to format it..it would be the last option for me......"

Do you want him to format the drive and then recover the data from the formatted drive?

Look at Disk 1 in his Disk Management. It is Unallocated, there couldn't be any data on it.

 

[jumanji]

Please have a look at the screenshot of Windows Disk Management in post #1 in this thread http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...al-hard-drive-suddenly-became-unllocated.html
- where the OP's external disk which had a lot of data suddenly became unallocated.

It took a lot of cajoling to apply the two pending operations after he ran Partition Recovery Wizard in Partition Wizard - which indeed found the lost partitions - and finally he did it

" Thank you so much indeed, Mr.jumanji for your continuing helping me.
I really applied the two operations pending with the partition recovery wizard yesterday before seeing your last post. I have not experienced such a problem at all. That drive has been having all my datas. I am going to copy it to at least three another external hard drives.

I am quite surprised that when I appied the two operations pending in partition recovery wizard, I saw that the hard drive returned as it was."
-Post # 20

Just to bring out the fact when a drive suddenly turns unallocated, it does not necessarily mean that there is no data in it or all the data in it is lost.