HDD not working

[ankitkasi]

Hi,

I have a Seagate Expansion drive (2 TB) that's about a year old. When I plug it in now, it shows up under removable media, devices and device manager. But I can't find it in My Computer or Disk Management. Device Management recognises it as a Seagate Hard Drive, but it can't populate. chkdsk didn't recognise the disk either. Would appreciate any help in getting this back up.

Thanks

[Skiiwee29]

Try a different Sata data cable and also try a different sata port on the motherboard. 

[Oryzaki]

Did you use more partitions than physically possible on the disk such that the volume color would turn yellow when viewed in disk manager? If so look up how to fix this their are a ton of you tube videos otherwise if the drive is stated as initialized then try to clear the drive and re initialize it otherwise i have no idea hope this helps. 

[seagate_surfer]

Hello ankitkasi!

This is definitely a rare case because if a drive can be seen by your system (devices and device manager) you should in theory be able to access it from anywhere (My Computer, Disk Management). The only reason why a drive wouldn’t show up under "My computer" or "Disk management" is because it is not enabled from the BIOS or because of defective equipment. You can post your motherboard model number if you want and I will check and see to show you how to enable the drive from your BIOS, maybe enabling and disabling can help the drive to be fully recognized by your OS, or also you can try a different cable/ slot /motherboard just like Skiiwee29 posted and share the results.

[ankitkasi]

On 5/28/2018 at 11:33 AM, Skiiwee29 said:

Try a different Sata data cable and also try a different sata port on the motherboard. 

I’m using a Dell 7567, but I tried different USB Ports and a different Laptop as well

[ankitkasi]

On 5/28/2018 at 6:15 PM, seagate_surfer said:

Hello ankitkasi!

This is definitely a rare case because if a drive can be seen by your system (devices and device manager) you should in theory be able to access it from anywhere (My Computer, Disk Management). The only reason why a drive wouldn’t show up under "My computer" or "Disk management" is because it is not enabled from the BIOS or because of defective equipment. You can post your motherboard model number if you want and I will check and see to show you how to enable the drive from your BIOS, maybe enabling and disabling can help the drive to be fully recognized by your OS, or also you can try a different cable/ slot /motherboard just like Skiiwee29 posted and share the results.

I’m using a Dell Inspiron 7567,

[ankitkasi]

On 5/28/2018 at 11:39 AM, Oryzaki said:

Did you use more partitions than physically possible on the disk such that the volume color would turn yellow when viewed in disk manager? If so look up how to fix this their are a ton of you tube videos otherwise if the drive is stated as initialized then try to clear the drive and re initialize it otherwise i have no idea hope this helps. 

There aren’t any partitions on the drive.

[TechyBen]

Do you need to recover the drive and data? Or just initialise it as a blank HDD?

Which one do you wish to do?

[ankitkasi]

On 6/10/2018 at 6:12 PM, TechyBen said:

Do you need to recover the drive and data? Or just initialise it as a blank HDD?

Which one do you wish to do?

Recover the whole drive with data, it’s still under warranty, so I think I can get it exchanged for a new drive anyways... I had some photos on that I don’t have back ups of...

[TechyBen]

Is it just the cable or caddy that is broken?

 

If the disk does not show in Windows File explorer, but does show in Disk Management, but does not have the option to "mark as active" or "change drive letter" etc, you can try Testdisk.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

 

You can use it to "search" for backup data/boot records if it is formatted in NTFS. It's VERY important not to format or initialise the drive incorrectly.

 

Testdisk will allow you to select the drive, then set to "intel" (if formatted on a PC FAT32/NTFS), then "analyse" then quick search/deeper search (may take a long time if deep searching, so if quick search shows everything, use that). If it finds a file structure, first check to see if there is data *before* changing options or "write" to the disk.

 

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

 

If it finds your old partitions, you will see a screen like this: 

 

Press "P" to list files, if working you will see a screen like this:

 

Then you can check the lists/files, and if you are happy use "q" to go back, and set the partitions to "P" or "L" with the left/right Arrow keys. This will set them back on the HDD from the backup partition table (if the drive still has it).

 

If Test Disk cannot see any files, you can also try Photorec (also in the download) to search for photos/docs on the drive. If neither work, then it may be the caddy/cable is damaged, and you need to change that.

[ankitkasi]

3 hours ago, TechyBen said:

Is it just the cable or caddy that is broken?

 

If the disk does not show in Windows File explorer, but does show in Disk Management, but does not have the option to "mark as active" or "change drive letter" etc, you can try Testdisk.

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

 

You can use it to "search" for backup data/boot records if it is formatted in NTFS. It's VERY important not to format or initialise the drive incorrectly.

 

Testdisk will allow you to select the drive, then set to "intel" (if formatted on a PC FAT32/NTFS), then "analyse" then quick search/deeper search (may take a long time if deep searching, so if quick search shows everything, use that). If it finds a file structure, first check to see if there is data *before* changing options or "write" to the disk.

 

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

 

If it finds your old partitions, you will see a screen like this: 

 

Press "P" to list files, if working you will see a screen like this:

 

Then you can check the lists/files, and if you are happy use "q" to go back, and set the partitions to "P" or "L" with the left/right Arrow keys. This will set them back on the HDD from the backup partition table (if the drive still has it).

 

If Test Disk cannot see any files, you can also try Photorec (also in the download) to search for photos/docs on the drive. If neither work, then it may be the caddy/cable is damaged, and you need to change that.

That’s the thing, it doesn’t show up in disk management but it is visible in device manager, I’ll still try the applications you mentioned, thanks

[TechyBen]

Sounds like it may be the USB caddy is broken. Sometimes you can remove the drive and put it in a new Caddy, or inside the PC.

[Ic3d]

I had an issue like this before, it can sometimes be caused if you just formatted the HDD as a driver letter i.e. "D" and then added it to a pc that already has a drive called "D"

 

If this could be the issue, take your pc, remove all the drives other than the boot drive and plug it in then reformat the drive as drive letter "g" or something along those lines 

[TechyBen]

Nah, Windows will let you change the drive partition in Disk Management (but yes, hidden away and not always in file explorer options).