ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Long story short... I have an old 500GB external HD that has been failing for a while (weird clicks, unable to display contents, CHKDSK aborting after 48hrs, ...). So I finally got myself a new Buffalo USB2 HD. First thing I did was a new backup of my C: drive, then I started to retrieve my vast collection of photos from the old HD. That all went very well, I was able to retrieve almost 100% of the photos. Then I thought, why not also copy old backups from the old drive (from various computers). Did a drag-and-drop from the F: (old) to the E: (new) HD, and got an error that the file was too large to copy to the new drive. And after that, the new drive just disappeared from view (Windows Explorer). Trying from Command Prompt to go to E: - no such device! I could still see the USB connection (safely remove hardware), but it would not show up as a drive. Restarted PC: no change. Connected it to another PC: same - it can see the USB connection, but no hard drive. Maybe I should mention that the old HD was formatted with an NTSC cluster size of 64kb, because it was mainly used as storage media for Acronis backups. The new HD came preformatted, most likely with the default 4kb cluster size. Is there any chance that I can resurrect my new HD, or shall I better order another new one before the old HD gives up completely? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan2273 Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Have you tried a Linux live disk, if that detects it, you can use gparted to format it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MANEMAN Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Would agree 100% with what Alan has said there Pat. A couple of questions though. Is the drive spinning ? Can you hear it spinning, and when you handle the drive can you detect that weird gyroscopic feeling as you turn it in your hand ? Obviously if it is not spinning up, - give up.What usually happens is that the partition goes corrupt, and if you do get to see any files on there they are usually reported as being "Raw" which makes the partition invisible to the computer. If you are having to download a Linux distro i would suggest "Parted Magic" which apart from containing GParted that we are suggesting you to use, also has "Testdisk" and other useful tools bundled into a very small package. You can download it here: http://partedmagic.c...hp?id=downloadsScreenshots here: http://partedmagic.c...?id=screenshots One of those multi-tools that once you've got, either on disc or USB stick that you will never regret downloading in times of trouble Pat. Let us know how this goes. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-pops- Posted March 8, 2012 Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 I've had two Western Digital drives fail in a similar way. I returned them and got replacements (with a very limited warranty - 2 months). These also failed just outside the warranty timing. I promised myself then that I would not have another commercial external hard drive - and I haven't. I don't buy anything by Western Digital either. What I do now is use a drive caddy and put my own, known, drive into it. I've done this a number of times with no failures so far. What's more, it can be cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 Thank you for your replies! I am currently posting from Parted Magic, that comes bundled with Firefox. GParted found the device, but there was no allocated partition. I created a new NTFS partition, then selected Attempt Data Rescue. This has been running for a couple of hours now (it warned at the outset that this operation could take a very long time). While this is running, and I have nothing else to do, I am trying to install Flash Player. Knowing nothing about Linux, this has been a failure so far... I will post the outcome (about the disk rescue, not Flash Player) when it's done. Thank you again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted March 8, 2012 Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 Go to Device Manager and ensure the drive is "Enabled" This has happened me a couple of times and it was the Device Manager settings that was the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted March 9, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 Thank you D4\/!d - I will keep that in mind if it happens another time. For now the device is ready and usable, thanks to Parted Magic! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MANEMAN Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 D'ya know D4\/!d, I had never realised that setting even existed in Device Manager until you just mentioned it. Everyday is a learning day so they say. Thanks. Pleased to hear that things have gone well Pat. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 John, just pleased I could tell you something you didn't already know, ha ha. :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D4\/!d Posted March 9, 2012 Report Share Posted March 9, 2012 For now the device is ready and usablePleased to hear it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MANEMAN Posted March 10, 2012 Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 Originally Nawf London. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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