Windows 7 does not recognize my external HDD

[GamerKingFaiz]

When I plug in my external HDD I hear the USB noise, but it does not show up under My Computer. It does however show up and it allows me to safely remove the device, though it doesn't have the original device's name (FlexDrive). So instead of "Eject Flexdrive" it says "Eject External".

I've been having this problem with this HDD for a while now, but I would just eject it and plug it back in and it would recognize. This time it was a different story, it is not recognizing, even though it lights up and the disk starts to spin.

This is what disc management shows as well (also showing what I meant when trying to eject):

EDIT: lol, for example right now. I just ejected it and plugged it in again and autoplay came up... =/

EDIT2: And now that I have it working, this is what it looks like:

EDIT3: And this is what disc management looks like when it is working:

 

[Night Hawk]

Glad to see you found your own solution and saw the drive initialized! GamerKingFaiz Welcome to the Seven Forums!

If you are now looking for seeing a drive letter remain longer even after unplugging and replugging the drive in you can reformat the factory Fat 32 if nothing is on it presently to switch that over to NTFS and assign the drive letter you prefer in the Disk Management tool.

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

Um, the problem isn't fixed, I was just showing how my HDD randomly starts working after a few couple of ejects and plug back ins.

I was hoping there was some sort of fix, because today especially, it took way too many ejects/plug back ins, and I thought it was totally fried.

 

[electrotune1200]

Just out of curiosity...

Have you tried updating or reinstalling your chipset drivers?

Are you running x86 or x64 Windows 7?

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

How would I go about doing that?

And

x86 Windows 7

 

[electrotune1200]

Here's a link to the download page
 INF Update Utility - Primarily for Intel® 5, 4, 3, 900 Series Chipsets

Install the chipset drivers. You will need to reboot to finish the installation.

Let us know if this clears up your issue.

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

Are you sure I should download and install that, on the webpage it has this warning:

The Intel Chipset Device Software does not install drivers for AGP or USB. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS UTILITY IF YOUR DEVICE MANUFACTURER IS RECOMMENDING IT TO CORRECT AN "AGP DRIVER," "AGP GART," OR "USB DRIVER" ISSUE; IT WILL NOT CORRECT YOUR ISSUE.

 

[Night Hawk]

Um, the problem isn't fixed, I was just showing how my HDD randomly starts working after a few couple of ejects and plug back ins.

I was hoping there was some sort of fix, because today especially, it took way too many ejects/plug back ins, and I thought it was totally fried.

The main problem is typical for Windows when the factory Fat 32 volumes are left one rather then first nuking it off the drive entirely and seeing a fresh NTFS partition go on. If you can get the drive working long enough to back everything up from it a good reformat should be a big help for you as long as the drive itself is working normally and not seeing any defect or bad sectors.

It won't hurt updating the chipset drivers if any were corrupted or now missing as suggested by electrotune1200 simply seeing an updated driver set go on. With a laptop you are using integrated graphics not a separate AGP card there.

 

[electrotune1200]

It's up to you really. If you feel uneasy installing the chipset drivers then I understand.

If your specs are listed correctly, installing the chipset drivers won't harm your machine.

Do you have any alternative usb inputs to try the external HDD in? Is this only happening in one particular slot, or is it happening in all of them?

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

The specs are listed directly from a DxDiag, and yes I've tried different slots on my lappy to no avail.

 

[electrotune1200]

Installing the chipset drivers won't hurt. Like Night Hawk has suggested, the drivers could be corrupted, or just need updating.

If installing the chipset drivers don't resolve the issue, we can at least cross that off the list of troubleshoots.

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

Hm, well I'll be damned. I installed the chipset drivers, restarted, and the HDD was recognized on boot up. No need to eject/plug back in.

I'm hoping it's not a lucky launch or anything, but I will report back here in a few days whether it worked, and definitely if it didn't.

 

[Night Hawk]

Know anyone with a live ubuntu cd? That's one way to see onto the drive when Windows is unable to provided the drive and data cable are good. Make sure it's plugged in all the way at the drive end as well as into any usb port.

There are several partition recovery programs other then the DrFreebie nightmare but do cost an average of $70 for rescue if the factory partition's own MFT is pooched. Another suggestion of course would be seeing if the drive works on another laptop or desktop if you brought it to a friend or repair shop for a quick look without being charged.

 

[electrotune1200]

Awesome!

Well it's a good start. Please keep us updated on the outcome.

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

*sigh* Well this morning I booted up my laptop and am still having the old problem. The HDD will not be recognized.

 

[Night Hawk]

Is it showing up in the Disk Management tool? If you find it there but not in any explorer window you can still add it in as a new drive by right clicking on the drive item there to select the change drive letter option.

The long term solution for it if no hardware or cable problems are found of course would be nuking the factory problem partition off completely once you have everything on it backed up and creating a brand new NTFS volume to work with since the present one(factory Fat 32) seems to be having too many problems to start with.

If the drive is on the way out you would also want to get everything off as well just in case. Either way at least you will have all that preserved.

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

When the drive isn't registering in Windows, this is what I see when I right click on it:

And also, I wouldn't have any way to move all the stuff, because I keep all my games, movies, and my lappy backup on it because my lappy's internal hard drive has only 20 GB free of space...

 

[Night Hawk]

From the looks of that the drive's partition table was corrupted now resulting in seeing unallocated drive space rather then an existing partition. In other words partition recovery time is what you would now need in order to locate and recover files from an apparently non existant partition.

Just hope you won't need the Dr.FreeNightmare to recover them better known as the free Fedora based Dr.Freeware data recovery program that literall renames everything it recovers from a drive into ??? many folders with names like recover_1, recover_2, etc. I pointed out to someone else lately with a similar problem.

This is another reason why custom installing programs to secondary drives leads to disasters! If you are not able to recovery anything from the drive you will need to reinstall all programs as well as suffer the loss of all the files you were storing on it. Not good!

The price tags on most softwares that can recover entire partitions when the MFT is broken typically run at about $70 as well when shopping around to price them. The demo versions won't work! A good number were tried out recently on an older machine when the partition table was lost and the drive appeared empty just as you now see that one.

 

[GamerKingFaiz]

Alright, well just updating: the drive totally died a few days ago, and I sent it in for RMA, when I get it back I will be replacing the RMA'd drive with my laptop's internal drive.

If you want to help me with that please go to this thread.

 

[Night Hawk]

Hope the new drive is reliable as it should. The one thing about external enclosures I looked at when picking one out was cooling since the factory ones that come with drives included often lack good air flow where drives can get quite warm. For long term use that is something to consider as well.