Help with external hard drive problem

liquidsoap89 · 06-15-2009, 11:16 PM

Okay so I've had this external hard drive for like 2 or 3 years now and I've never had a problem with it. But I recently reformatted my computer and now when I turn on this hard drive it is detected by windows and it installed its driver or whatever it does, but there is no drive I can access in the my computer folder.

I checked the device manager and it's listed there, and my other external hard drive works just fine (in fact I'm using it right now).

I read somewhere that you can only have 4 ide drives or something per computer and I have 2 dvd drives, 1 internal hard drive and 2 external hard drives, so my thought was that 1 of the 2 external drives counts towards those 4 and the other one can't or something, I know the hard drive still works because I was using it before I reformatted my computer, and I didn't do anything to it after. But I do know that I plugged in my external hard drive that works BEFORE I plugged in the one that doesn't work (after I reformatted), so the 4 ide drives thing does make sense.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

**bomberboysk** · 06-15-2009, 11:25 PM

Have you tried the hard drive on another computer?Try right clicking on my computer, and hitting manage. Go to Storage->Disk management. Is the drive listed there? If it is, see if it has a drive letter, you may need to right click on the drive and hit "assign drive letter", or you may just need to reformat the drive...

liquidsoap89 · 06-15-2009, 11:37 PM

Ohhhh my I fail. I went to storage -> disk management like you said. And I see that the drive is unallocated. Instantly I am reminded of when I reformatted my computer and forgot that my portable drive was left on; and of course, I delete the partition on that drive.

Well, problem solved, but now if I want to partition this drive again with windows partition wizard do I choose primary partition or extended partition, cuz I don't want this to steal the thunder from my main drive or anything like that

Thank you SO MUCH as well!!!

EDIT: I'm doing a primary partition, seems logical, hope all goes well and I can go back to having a backup drive.... man I feel so dumb right now.

06-15-2009, 11:16 PM	#1 (permalink)
liquidsoap89 New Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 5	Help with external hard drive problem Okay so I've had this external hard drive for like 2 or 3 years now and I've never had a problem with it. But I recently reformatted my computer and now when I turn on this hard drive it is detected by windows and it installed its driver or whatever it does, but there is no drive I can access in the my computer folder. I checked the device manager and it's listed there, and my other external hard drive works just fine (in fact I'm using it right now). I read somewhere that you can only have 4 ide drives or something per computer and I have 2 dvd drives, 1 internal hard drive and 2 external hard drives, so my thought was that 1 of the 2 external drives counts towards those 4 and the other one can't or something, I know the hard drive still works because I was using it before I reformatted my computer, and I didn't do anything to it after. But I do know that I plugged in my external hard drive that works BEFORE I plugged in the one that doesn't work (after I reformatted), so the 4 ide drives thing does make sense. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

06-15-2009, 11:25 PM	#2 (permalink)
bomberboysk Moderator Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Northeast Ohio, But mainly infront of computer Age: 16 Posts: 8,106	Have you tried the hard drive on another computer?Try right clicking on my computer, and hitting manage. Go to Storage->Disk management. Is the drive listed there? If it is, see if it has a drive letter, you may need to right click on the drive and hit "assign drive letter", or you may just need to reformat the drive... __________________ CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 @ 3.90Ghz Custom Water Loop \| Mobo: EVGA 790i Ultra SLI \| GPU: 9800gtx and GTS250 in SLI\| Ram: 4GB(2 x 2gb) 1333Mhz ddr3 \| Case: Xclio WTBKAdvanced \| Sound: X-fi Fatal1ty Championship, Z-5500 5.1 Surround\| HDD: 2x Raid 0 7200.11 500gb \| PSU: Zalman ZM-1000HP \|OS: Windows 7 Enterprise x64\| Dont skimp on a power supply,if it fails, it usually takes out other components alongside it. New? Dont forget to read the rules. Heatware P.M. If interested in Shin Etsu X23-7783D

06-15-2009, 11:37 PM	#3 (permalink)
liquidsoap89 New Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 5	Ohhhh my I fail. I went to storage -> disk management like you said. And I see that the drive is unallocated. Instantly I am reminded of when I reformatted my computer and forgot that my portable drive was left on; and of course, I delete the partition on that drive. Well, problem solved, but now if I want to partition this drive again with windows partition wizard do I choose primary partition or extended partition, cuz I don't want this to steal the thunder from my main drive or anything like that Thank you SO MUCH as well!!! EDIT: I'm doing a primary partition, seems logical, hope all goes well and I can go back to having a backup drive.... man I feel so dumb right now. Last edited by liquidsoap89; 06-16-2009 at 12:03 AM.

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