Windows 7 loses my portable hard drive

Asked By Labador 240 points N/A Posted on - 10/18/2011

Windows 7 loses my portable hard drive.

Thanks in advance for the help.

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Answered By juisaha 0 points N/A #91390

Windows 7 loses my portable hard drive

Not all BIOS systems can support booting from external drives. But you will lose everything on that drive if you install to it because Windows will format the drive before installing a new operating system. There are sometimes ways around this, but I'm not sure if there are for Windows 7.

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Answered By JPaul 0 points N/A #91392

Windows 7 loses my portable hard drive

 

Here are some things that you can do:

 

1. Check if the hard drive is getting sufficient stable power supply.
2. The USB cables should be of high quality with minimum length. Cable lengths over 3-5 meters depending on the USB version or connection through one or more hubs can be problematic.
3. Check if your driver is running the latest available firmware.
4. The latest chipset drivers should be used for the USB controllers.
5. If the power management is enabled on the computer's USB root hub device, try to disable it and see if it makes any difference.
6. Other devices connected to the same USB hub and controller might be trying to use the same drive letter. 
7. Enter your BIOS setup screen and make sure you set the port to AUTO DETECT.
8. The worst case scenario: your hard drive was shot and needed replacement. 

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• Posted on - 10/18/2011
• Question Category: Embedded Hardware