Hard Drive in Device Manager but nowhere else?
Discussion
Hi everyone, bit of a weird one that's left me a bit stuck!
I bought a 1.5TB Western Digital external hard drive a month or so ago - to use as a backup. Plug in, drive letter automatically assigned, then use for back up. Lovely jubbly.
A month later I go to back up again and there's no drive letter there. So, go into Disk Management to reassign the drive letter, but can't see it in there either. Which left me a bit stuck!
So, I went to the Western Digital site and downloaded their diagnostics tool, however it can't connect to the HD saying there's a cabling problem. Unfortunately I don't have a similar cable to test that, but it seems odd to me; I can see "WD" in Device Manager, so it's obviously connected somehow.
I've plugged the drive in to another computer and the computer recognises it, says it's installing, "your new hardware is ready to use", but then exactlyt he same; not in Disk Management or Explorer, but is in Device Manager.
I'm therefore a bit stuck. Could it be a cable problem (weird as it recognises the drive when it's plugged in first time to another PC), or is there somethign else I should be looking at/doing?
Any thoughts appreciated, this has left me a bit stumped!
I bought a 1.5TB Western Digital external hard drive a month or so ago - to use as a backup. Plug in, drive letter automatically assigned, then use for back up. Lovely jubbly.
A month later I go to back up again and there's no drive letter there. So, go into Disk Management to reassign the drive letter, but can't see it in there either. Which left me a bit stuck!
So, I went to the Western Digital site and downloaded their diagnostics tool, however it can't connect to the HD saying there's a cabling problem. Unfortunately I don't have a similar cable to test that, but it seems odd to me; I can see "WD" in Device Manager, so it's obviously connected somehow.
I've plugged the drive in to another computer and the computer recognises it, says it's installing, "your new hardware is ready to use", but then exactlyt he same; not in Disk Management or Explorer, but is in Device Manager.
I'm therefore a bit stuck. Could it be a cable problem (weird as it recognises the drive when it's plugged in first time to another PC), or is there somethign else I should be looking at/doing?
Any thoughts appreciated, this has left me a bit stumped!
What O/s are you using? Now I assume from your post you have used the disk to store stuff already? Anyway, normally in windows with a new disk you have to go to Control panel/administravtive tools/computer management/disk management and enable the disk there before it will show up in my copmuter.
It's on Windows XP - and yes, the drive has already worked and I've put stuff on it. Then a month later (when I was to run my next back up) it wasn't there and is in the state it's now in.
My first thought was to remove the drive and use a different enclosure to see if it was ok, but it has a big old "WARRANTY VOID IF REMOVED" sticker on the case, so I thought better of that
Next step will be to send it back of course (it's only 1 month old) but I wanted to be able to make sure it's not a simple(ish) fix.
Thanks guys for the input
T
My first thought was to remove the drive and use a different enclosure to see if it was ok, but it has a big old "WARRANTY VOID IF REMOVED" sticker on the case, so I thought better of that
Next step will be to send it back of course (it's only 1 month old) but I wanted to be able to make sure it's not a simple(ish) fix.
Thanks guys for the input
T
marshalla said:
That sounds like the USB storage interface is being recognised, but the drive attached to it is not responding for some reason.
When I plug in/turn on etc there's no drive noises at all.I've not moved the drive - plugged in, left on desk and then a month later it's not there (so it's not a physical damage I dont think).
TonyHetherington said:
marshalla said:
That sounds like the USB storage interface is being recognised, but the drive attached to it is not responding for some reason.
When I plug in/turn on etc there's no drive noises at all.I've not moved the drive - plugged in, left on desk and then a month later it's not there (so it's not a physical damage I dont think).
Time to get the screwdrivers out or invoke the warranty IMHO.
I used Nero's backup software (can't remember what it was called, but it was the one that comes with the Nero Home Package).
Anyhow - it was trying to run the back up through NeroBackUp (or whatever it's called ) and it failing that first alerted me to the drive not being recognised, so it can't be that unfortunately!
Again, thanks for the thought thoough.
Anyhow - it was trying to run the back up through NeroBackUp (or whatever it's called
) and it failing that first alerted me to the drive not being recognised, so it can't be that unfortunately!Again, thanks for the thought thoough.
mattley said:
What did you use to perform your last backup, if it was just windows drag and drop then er.. yeah it's broken but some backup software 'adopts' the drive for backups only and hides it from the OS.
It should still show up in Disk Management as a drive with unknown partitions though.Road2Ruin said:
What O/s are you using? Now I assume from your post you have used the disk to store stuff already? Anyway, normally in windows with a new disk you have to go to Control panel/administravtive tools/computer management/disk management and enable the disk there before it will show up in my copmuter.
As above but change the assigned drive letter - probably been given a letter that is assigned to something else.Jinx said:
Road2Ruin said:
What O/s are you using? Now I assume from your post you have used the disk to store stuff already? Anyway, normally in windows with a new disk you have to go to Control panel/administravtive tools/computer management/disk management and enable the disk there before it will show up in my copmuter.
As above but change the assigned drive letter - probably been given a letter that is assigned to something else.Jinx said:
Road2Ruin said:
What O/s are you using? Now I assume from your post you have used the disk to store stuff already? Anyway, normally in windows with a new disk you have to go to Control panel/administravtive tools/computer management/disk management and enable the disk there before it will show up in my copmuter.
As above but change the assigned drive letter - probably been given a letter that is assigned to something else.BliarOut said:
Jinx said:
Road2Ruin said:
What O/s are you using? Now I assume from your post you have used the disk to store stuff already? Anyway, normally in windows with a new disk you have to go to Control panel/administravtive tools/computer management/disk management and enable the disk there before it will show up in my copmuter.
As above but change the assigned drive letter - probably been given a letter that is assigned to something else.If I use a Card reader analogy.
1)When I plug the card reader into my PC, it sees a card reader and installs the software for it, but obviously is showing no drives as there are no cards inserted.
2)As soon as I insert a card, it recognises this and shows the drive in Drive management and "my computer".
It looks like you've got to stage 1, but not to stage 2, this leads me to believe that the USB to hard drive adaptor is working (the card reader), but the connection between the adaptor and the hard drive is U/S (inserting the card).
Warranty jobby I'm afraid (or get the screwdrivers out). Caution with the warranty route, you may lose your data, so make them aware you've got data on it and would like it back if possible.
1)When I plug the card reader into my PC, it sees a card reader and installs the software for it, but obviously is showing no drives as there are no cards inserted.
2)As soon as I insert a card, it recognises this and shows the drive in Drive management and "my computer".
It looks like you've got to stage 1, but not to stage 2, this leads me to believe that the USB to hard drive adaptor is working (the card reader), but the connection between the adaptor and the hard drive is U/S (inserting the card).
Warranty jobby I'm afraid (or get the screwdrivers out). Caution with the warranty route, you may lose your data, so make them aware you've got data on it and would like it back if possible.
Fozzy - that's kinda where I think I've ended up with it (I'd be happy to get the screwdrivers out, but if it turns out to be a duff disk I'd have invalidated the warranty). So yes, I think I'll send it back! fortunately the data on it was only a backup so it can be completely deleted - I don't mind at all.
TonyHetherington said:
Fozzy - that's kinda where I think I've ended up with it (I'd be happy to get the screwdrivers out, but if it turns out to be a duff disk I'd have invalidated the warranty). So yes, I think I'll send it back! fortunately the data on it was only a backup so it can be completely deleted - I don't mind at all.
Maybe I was just lucky but I sent a WD NAS unit back that I'd opened. The labels tore apart but went back together in such a way that a casual check may not have noticed, although it would have been obvious if they were bothered about it.Not that opening it did me any good - it used ReiserSF file system that I couldn't access with anything free.
It took some time (6wks maybe) for a replacement to arrive.
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