Solved External HDD showing as local disk

[Wamfie]

Hi all

I have a 1TB Seagate expansion drive which has started giving me problems. In my computer it is referenced by local disk K: . Usually it is Seagate Expansion K: . I cannot access it,right-clicking on the drive causes explorer to crash. I have tried changing the drive letter but when opening disk management a blank screen comes up with the words "Connecting to virtual disk service". Nothing will show in disk management until the drive is disconnected form the laptop. I downloaded minitool partition wizard and using that I can see all the properties of drive. What should i do because the data is extremely important and sending it to Seagate would be too expensive

 

[GokAy]

We could give you some ideas but since data is extremely important:
Remove the disk and don't do anything until an expert (like Jumanji) responds.

 

[Wamfie]

Okay thanks. I will wait till he responds

 

[jumanji]

OK, I presume you created a bootable PW pendrive using Rufus and then booted your comp with it to run Partition Wizard. Right?

When you launch the application, are you seeing your System drive and the 1TB Seagate drive in the disk map?

Left click on the Seagate 1TB drive icon leftmost in the drive map to select it, then right click on it. Now click on Partition Recovery in the right click menu > Full Disk > Next > Quick Scan > Next . Allow Quick scan to complete.

At the end of it, you will get a screen like the one shown below showing all the partitions found - if found.



Just take a camera snapshot/screenshot and upload it and wait for further instructions. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

If you are unable to do that note down all the information verbatim and post it.

Having done that click on Cancel in that Window and close PW. ( You can run it again if necessary after getting the instructions)

 

[Wamfie]

I made a bootable pendrive using Rufus and when i tried to boot from Partition wizard i got this message

 

[jumanji]

In your first post you said "I downloaded minitool partition wizard and using that I can see all the properties of drive"

Can you post the screenshot in which you saw all the properties?

 

[Wamfie]

I will upload the screenshot now. When i said I saw all the properties I meant i could see the Drive name,Capacity,Used space,Unused space,File Sysem,Type and status. I am having trouble opening partition wizard with the drive connected,but when I run partition wizard with drive disconnected it runs just fine.

 

[jumanji]

So your running Partition Wizard in Windows. Fine.

Everything looks fine in Partition Wizard - except your external drive is active.

You are again confusing now by stating "I am having trouble opening partition wizard with the drive connected,but when I run partition wizard with drive disconnected it runs just fine."

Then how did you take this screenshot?Partition Wizard is running fine with the drive connected.

 

[Wamfie]

I disconnected the drive,then i started PW. When PW was open and running I connected the drive and refreshed PW. When i did that it showed a message about updating the drives for about 10-15 minutes. When it was done i took the screenshot and uploaded it here

Sorry for the confusion

 

[jumanji]

Ok. Now we shall forget about Partition Wizard. Close it.

Shut down and reboot your computer. Plug in your external drive.

Right click on My computer > Manage > Disk Management

Tell us what happens. Does your external drive appear in Disk Management?

 

[Wamfie]

When i open disk management,this is all I see. It stays like this till I disconnect the drive

 

[jumanji]

Hmmm.... Strange.

From when did this problem start? Have you made any changes after which this happened? What is your OS? I see your system drive as a GPT drive. An OEM system with UEFI. Were you using the drive on this system before?

Run Partition Wizard with the drive connected. Select the external drive volume, right click > Set inactive. Apply changes.

Check whether the problem is resolved.

 

[Wamfie]

It started on Saturday(the day before yesterday). My OS is Windows 8.1. Yes I have used the drive with this system before. Now PW shows something completely different. My drive the K: shows that it is unformatted.

Shortly after uploading the screenshot PW crashed. So I ran it again with the drive disconnected and connected the drive when PW was open and running. It showed like the previous screenshots where you could see the drive as "K:Seagate Expansion". I then did what you asked and set the drive as inactive. This is the screenshot. It is still applying pending operation

 

[jumanji]

What is the status now?

Your system specs says Windows 7 Ultimate. Now you are saying Windows 8.1. Your problem should have been posted in Windows 8 Forums to be dealt with people familiar with it.

Now I know why you got an error message when trying to run the Bootable PW. If your system is UEFI with Windows 8.1, you have to disable secure boot and enable legacy boot to be able to boot from the USB device.

Do you still have the Windows 7 System and can you change over to it?

Or wait till some one who is familiar with Windows 8 to assist you here.

( There is something strange in your case and I am unable to decipher yet.)

I am now retiring for the day.

 

[Wamfie]

It has successfully applied the changes. The drive has been set inactive. Before i actually joined seven and eight forums I saw in a thread you are helping a other user that has the the same problem as me,only difference is he has a a windows 7 system and I have a 8.1 system and that he did not mind his drive being formatted where I do. So i joined seven forums hoping you would help me(which you are doing ). I also joined eightforums but we were unable to help me with my problem. Now I am here hoping that we could figure out what is the problem and how it could be solved.

 

[gregrocker]

I was asked by Jumanji to look at this.

Run SFC /SCANNOW Command it seems either the OS or your drive (or both) has corruption.

Test the external hard drive using it's maker's HD Diagnostic preferably the bootable scan, followed by a full Disk Check.

The external was incorrectly set Active. Only the partition booting an OS should ever be Active. Was the external previously made bootable?

 

[AddRAM]

Externals and flash drives come marked active from the factory. I`ve seen it.

Why, I have no clue.

 

[Wamfie]

I ran the SFC command and it gave me this. I also ran a full disk check. I am not sure on how to test the HDD using Seagate's HD Diagnostic. No the external was not made bootable before.

 

[jumanji]

Hi Wamfie,

You are in good hands to resolve any issues in Windows. Go by their instructions in resolving the issues..

I shall be out of town for the next three days and shall return to this thread on return.

 

[Wamfie]

Thanks Jumanji

So I decided to see if my external would work on one of the university's PC's and i could actually view my external in the disk management section but the file system is RAW. I also ran check disk. I hope the screenshot will be of assistance.