My computer cannot read my External Hard Drive

Asked By kacie anderson 340 points N/A Posted on - 06/01/2011

I purchased a Toshiba Store Art 3 1TB External Hard Drive to secure all the important data’s  and backups on my notebook. 

It can connect to any Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 computer via a USB 2.0 port.

The unit is practically plugged and play. My computer detected my external hard drive the first time I plug this to my computer. While I was backing up all the important data’s on my pc, it went into hibernation because the battery is too low.

I could not easily turn my laptop on again so I have to wait for few minutes.

 

After rebooting, the hard drive suddenly stopped spinning. It seems like it stopped working or read any data’s.  Then I tried a reboot again, but my computer was not able to detect the hard drive anymore. I checked on the Computer Management then go to Volume, it has an error like this: Disk 1 is Unknown and Not Initialized.

All the drives in my computer were okay except for my External Hard Drive. I am using Windows Vista Ultimate. I want to know if there’s a method on how to fix this problem.

Do my files inside my External Hard Drive still intact?

Please advise some procedures on how to save it.

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• Question Category: Misc Hardware

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Answered By Evan_ 0 points N/A #108437

My computer cannot read my External Hard Drive

The file system in your external hard drive must have been corrupted. But the good news here is that, even though the file system is corrupted, your important files and data are still intact.

One option here is to plug your external hard drive to another computer with different OS. I preferably recommend plugging it to computer with Linux OS. Once it mounts to the Linux machine, copy your files immediately from your hard disk to the Linux desktop to create a back-up.

 

You can then format your hard disk from Windows 7 and copy back your files back to your hard disk.

 

Another option here is to try to repair your external hard drive file system. You can do this by running System File Checker. Before running the System File Checker, close first all open programs you have right now.

 

Then click the Start button in your Windows. Click Run then type SFC /SCANNOW Click Ok button to run the command. Follow the instructions shown in your screen. After which, a progress bar will display to indicate that fixing is in progress.

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• Posted on - 06/14/2011
• Question Category: Misc Hardware

Answered By kacie anderson 340 points N/A #108438

My computer cannot read my External Hard Drive

Thanks for sending support. I followed your advice, but no luck.

I returned the external hard drive to the store where I bought it. They agreed to change it since it is under warranty.

And I am using it now without problems.

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• Posted on - 08/30/2011
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Answered By Sharath Reddy 590495 points N/A #317020

My computer cannot read my External Hard Drive

If you are booting the computer with the external hard drive connected on startup, disconnect it before starting the computer. I don’t think that sudden hibernation will cause a problem with the hard drive. Shut down the computer then disconnect the external hard drive from the USB port then wait about ten to twenty seconds (10 – 20 seconds) before starting the computer again.

After booting, connect or plug the external hard drive to the USB port. If the external hard drive didn’t work or wasn’t detected, try transferring the USB cable to another USB port. There are a minimum of four (4) USB ports on the CPU plus two (2) or more in front so try making use of them to troubleshoot the drive.

Try also using a different USB cable for your hard drive. If this doesn’t work, try plugging the external hard drive to another computer then see if it is working there. If the drive still can’t be detected even on the other computer, if it is still under warranty, go back to the store where you bought it and ask for a replacement.

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• Posted on - 05/31/2019
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