Western Digital external hard drive -wont recognize

[carrera6060]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Running Vista

Hello great Wizards, I have an older 250 gig My Book external hard drive with very important info on it.. 99% of the time Vista doesn't recognize the drive. Once and while I do see it when I click on "Computer" with all the other drives. Currently I can not get it to show up at all. The weird part is it shows up in the "Safely remove hardware pane" and the Control Panel-Device Manager-hard drives. When you rt click on Computer-manage-Disk management it shows "Disk 2 unknown -not initialized" ?? I have tried the following:

Reboot several times
Plugged AC wire directly into wall
Changes USB wires
Used different ports
Used fire wire
Used different computer (with Vista)

Your help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Carrera

[MaDef]

Try using TestDisk to recover the partition table. Use the step x step link to walk you through it.

[Mosaic1]

Also posted same issue here:

http://www.cybertechhelp.com/forums/...d.php?t=213954

[carrera6060]

Thanks Mosaic, the HD was only used on this computer and my prior one running WinXP..

[carrera6060]

Thanks you MaDeF , will not pick up the WD external drive just lists my HD from the computer. although I see it on the devise manager and "safely remove hardwear pane..mybe a bios issue? I heard Vista had them..how do i update that if you think thats it..all the best

Carrera

[MaDef]

If you're "seeing" the drive in both the device manager and disk management consoles then the 2 most likely causes are a corrupted partition table or the drive isn't formated. Since you formated the drive and have used it already, then the odds are it's a corrupted partiton table.

It's also an "older" external drive, the cause of the corruption may be that the power adapter to the drive is going bad, which causes the same symptoms. You may want to try another adapter in case that one is going out. Radio shack, Fry's electronics, etc. should have them on the shelf. Just make sure that the power rating is the same or you risk ruining the drive.

[carrera6060]

will do..thanks

[carrera6060]

If not the power, what else can I do?
Thanks

[carrera6060]

Ok I have another EXHD with a power cord of 100-240V in and 12v 2a out just like my problem HD used it and it still does not recognize HD on computer. again I see it on the USB connections as WD mass storage device...
Thanks!

[MaDef]

You need to use TestDisk and the walkthrough to replace the corrupt Parition table with the backup (the links to TestDisk and walkthrough are in my first post.

[carrera6060]

Ok i will try again. I must be doing somthing wrong becasue Test disk did not even find my External hard drive just the internal one..I will try again

[carrera6060]

Test disk Ex only recogonizes my internal hard drive it does not pick up the external WD hard drive so i can not repair.

[MaDef]

Which testdisk version are you using? The windows version of testdisk should pick up the external drive. run testdisk_win and select create. that should list all the drives including the USB (external) drive.

[carrera6060]

thank you for your continued patience. I did exactly that "run testdisk_win and select create". black screen came up listing my internal Hitachi drive as the only one..?

[MaDef]

Is the drive "seen" on another pc? if it is there may be issues with your USB ports. Try a different port. and while you're at it try a different usb cable.