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Post by paintedklown on Jan 5, 2016 20:26:20 GMT -5
Hey all,
I need your help. I have a Seagate external hard drive that seems to have suddenly gave up the ghost with no warning.
The computer suddenly doesn't recognize that the drive is plugged into it, not sure what is up. The blue power light comes on as usual, and the PC will make the usual ding if I unplug it and plug it back in, but it fails to show up as a drive. This drive isn't very old and is plugged into my PC 24/7 turning off and on with my PC. This drive has its own power supply and does not rely on the 5v USB power. I have tried plugging it into all of my other ports to no avail. It doesn't sound like it's spinning up properly to me.
My other external drives and PC are functioning normally.
I don't care if the drive is useless, but I was wondering of there is a way I can possibly get my data off the drive. It's about 3TB of photos, docs, music, movies, etc.
Any ideas all?
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Post by ctau on Jan 5, 2016 21:14:10 GMT -5
You could try turning the drive upside down while running it. That will help in certain situations.
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Post by paintedklown on Jan 5, 2016 21:18:24 GMT -5
You could try turning the drive upside down while running it. That will help in certain situations. LOL! I have actually tried it several times. Plus either side, funny angles, etc. Nothing seems to work. I am curious to know if there is a safe way to remove the drive from the housing and hook it up another way maybe? |
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Jan 5, 2016 21:22:37 GMT -5
Hey all, ....I was wondering of there is a way I can possibly get my data off the drive.... This will depend on whether it is a drive failure or an electronics failure in the USB to Sata circuit. If it is the electronics you could break the drive out of its enclosure and plug it directly to a Sata port in you computer. I would go a little further before taking this drastic step. Have you switched USB ports and/or cables? Tried it on another computer? Check Control Panel/Computer Management/Storage and see if the drive is listed? |
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Post by paintedklown on Jan 5, 2016 21:28:42 GMT -5
I have tried a different cable, and tried switching it to all of my other USB ports. I have not yet tried it on another PC though. The drive does not show up when connected to the PC. It makes the usual ding sound when you connect it, it lights up and makes noise, but nothing shows up for this drive. All of my other drives continue to show up and function as normal.
EDIT: Chuck, You are the man!!! I plugged it into my GFs laptop and it works! Woot!!!
Gonna try to pull everything off of it for a backup.
Now the question is, why would it suddenly stop working on my PC and fire up on hers?
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Post by novisnick on Jan 5, 2016 21:46:16 GMT -5
I have tried a different cable, and tried switching it to all of my other USB ports. I have not yet tried it on another PC though. The drive does not show up when connected to the PC. It makes the usual ding sound when you connect it, it lights up and makes noise, but nothing shows up for this drive. All of my other drives continue to show up and function as normal. EDIT: Chuck, You are the man!!! I plugged it into my GFs laptop and it works! Woot!!! Gonna try to pull everything off of it for a backup. Now the question is, why would it suddenly stop working on my PC and fire up on hers? Now! Go buy a backup drive and copy this HD,,,,,,,,NOW!!!!!! You have been warned!!! Friendly advice,,,,,,,and cheap too!!!  |
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Post by paintedklown on Jan 5, 2016 21:49:01 GMT -5
I have tried a different cable, and tried switching it to all of my other USB ports. I have not yet tried it on another PC though. The drive does not show up when connected to the PC. It makes the usual ding sound when you connect it, it lights up and makes noise, but nothing shows up for this drive. All of my other drives continue to show up and function as normal. EDIT: Chuck, You are the man!!! I plugged it into my GFs laptop and it works! Woot!!! Gonna try to pull everything off of it for a backup. Now the question is, why would it suddenly stop working on my PC and fire up on hers? Now! Go buy a backup drive and copy this HD,,,,,,,,NOW!!!!!! You have been warned!!! Friendly advice,,,,,,,and cheap too!!! No worries, I started backing it up as soon as it came on!   |
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Jan 5, 2016 21:55:16 GMT -5
2 possibilities here- one easy; one bad.
Bad first:
Check another USB device to be sure you haven't blown an internal USB hub!
Easy:
Check what I suggested before "Control Panel/Computer Management/Storage"
The drive may have lost its system drive letter. If you see it and it has no drive letter, right click and assign one!
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Post by paintedklown on Jan 5, 2016 22:10:19 GMT -5
2 possibilities here- one easy; one bad. Bad first: Check another USB device to be sure you haven't blown an internal USB hub! Easy: Check what I suggested before "Control Panel/Computer Management/Storage" The drive may have lost its system drive letter. If you see it and it has no drive letter, right click and assign one! I am using Windows 10 (brand new PC as well). Not 100% sure where you are saying to control this. Under Device Manager? Sorry for being so dumb about this. |
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Post by knucklehead on Jan 5, 2016 22:30:18 GMT -5
Like Chuck mentioned some times the external USB drive will 'lose' its drive ID. If it shows up in device manager under Disk Drives but not on Windows Explorer you should be able to see it in Disk Management. Assign an unused drive letter to it and you should be good to go. Windows is screwy. I've yet to see Linux simply 'lose' a drive. IMO the best way to access Device Manager and Disk Management is to do a right click on 'My Computer' and select 'Manage' in the context menu. You'll be able to switch between device manager and disk management in the L/H pane.
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Post by paintedklown on Jan 5, 2016 22:32:30 GMT -5
Ok, I hooked it back to my PC and here is the error I get:
Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Code 38)
The driver could not be loaded because a previous version of the driver is still in memory.
I have tried uninstalling the device and plugging it back in and I get the same error.
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Post by paintedklown on Jan 5, 2016 22:35:11 GMT -5
Like Chuck mentioned some times the external USB drive will 'lose' its drive ID. If it shows up in device manager under Disk Drives but not on Windows Explorer you should be able to see it in Disk Management. Assign an unused drive letter to it and you should be good to go. Windows is screwy. I've yet to see Linux simply 'lose' a drive. IMO the best way to access Device Manager and Disk Management is to do a right click on 'My Computer' and select 'Manage' in the context menu. You'll be able to switch between device manager and disk management in the L/H pane. Ok, I looked in 'Disk Management', and it does not show up. I'm lost here guys... EDIT: Ok, I am on my GFs PC now. I am doing a system restore to 3 days ago on my PC. Oddly there was a windows update today, and today is when my issues started. Coincidence? I am hoping this will work. If so, I am turning off all updates. **Fingers crossed** |
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Post by knucklehead on Jan 5, 2016 23:12:17 GMT -5
Did you look in DEVICE MANAGER for your wayward disk drive? Always look there first if you cannot find a drive - flash thumb drive etc.
If you suspect the last Windows Update is the problem why not just uninstall that update? Its easier than doing a system restore. You'll find that in Control Panel under Programs and Features. Find the windows update with the latest install date and click on it and select 'uninstall'. Much easier and less risky than a system restore IMO.
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Post by paintedklown on Jan 5, 2016 23:15:35 GMT -5
Did you look in DEVICE MANAGER for your wayward disk drive? Always look there first if you cannot find a drive - flash thumb drive etc. Yeah, device manager is where I was getting all of the error messages. I did a system restore to 3 days ago and that fixed the problem. I then turned off windows updates. They had to be the culprit, or look to be anyway as there was one today and that is when the issue started. Not sure why a windows update would cause that issue, but I am hoping all is well now. Thanks to everyone for their help! |
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Post by knucklehead on Jan 5, 2016 23:19:58 GMT -5
Well - windows causes all sorts of issues - its what Microsoft does. Nobody does it better than MS.
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Post by audiobill on Jan 6, 2016 5:32:12 GMT -5
Or consider moving to Tidal CD quality streaming.....
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Post by copperpipe on Jan 6, 2016 9:52:16 GMT -5
Well - windows causes all sorts of issues - its what Microsoft does. Nobody does it better than MS. I have to laugh everytime windows "is installing your hardware" just by switching the port you plug your stuff into. At one point I had a mouse that only worked in one of the 3 usb ports on my laptop. It's a pathetic OS at this point, especially with all the nasty purple and blue rectangles (windows 8 apps), ads in the start menu, massive drivers and antiXXX software that sucks 50% of the power out of your machine. Heaven help anyone that is forced to use that abomination. |
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Post by Chuck Elliot on Jan 6, 2016 10:13:49 GMT -5
I wondered how long it was going to take for this thread to turn the corner into a Windows sucks thread!
All I can say is that I run Windows 10 on 6 different computers and I have no problems at all using anything. And, I haven't since Widows 7. I skipped Windows 8 as it was a POS with no real enhancements of 7.
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Post by copperpipe on Jan 6, 2016 11:32:23 GMT -5
Sorry, I will from now on refrain from posting anymore on this site about how bad windows is. It's hard though, there is so much in windows to poke fun at, it's almost as rich as politics  |
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Post by regulator on Jan 6, 2016 11:43:18 GMT -5
Haha I like how you made a comment of it turning to a Windows suck thread, then proceeded to say that Windows 8 is a POS.  Made me laugh. Some great advice here. I have had this happen to me before, and after a few weeks of not using the 'bad' drive, it would end up working and showing up on my device list. Of course, BACK IT UP NOW as others had said, now that you have the opportunity. Might want to try uninstalling the drivers for the external drive and reinstalling for further troubleshooting. Good luck. I know how painful it is to lose data so I you are able to make a back up! |
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