Emergency! External Hard Drive Help

[huntr1]

When our computer died, I bought an external hard drive enclosure so we could access the old hard drive from the new PC to save the data. Hooked up the unit and walla there was my hard drive. Dumb me, I didn't immediately download it to the new PC. Overnight, Vista deleted the driver or something. Now I cannot get the unit to work. PC sees it, but cannot access it. Tried hooking it up to my laptop, but still won't access it. It did not come with a driver disk, it was supposed to be plug and play. Wife tried putting the old PC back together and using the new monitor in case the problem all slong was the monitor. It wasn't. No joy.

How can I find out what driver I need?
Anybody know how to get this thing to work?
This is an emergency situation as our address book is on the hard drive.

 

[GWguy]

When our computer died, I bought an external hard drive enclosure so we could access the old hard drive from the new PC to save the data. Hooked up the unit and walla there was my hard drive. Dumb me, I didn't immediately download it to the new PC. Overnight, Vista deleted the driver or something. Now I cannot get the unit to work. PC sees it, but cannot access it. Tried hooking it up to my laptop, but still won't access it. It did not come with a driver disk, it was supposed to be plug and play. Wife tried putting the old PC back together and using the new monitor in case the problem all slong was the monitor. It wasn't. No joy.

How can I find out what driver I need?
Anybody know how to get this thing to work?
This is an emergency situation as our address book is on the hard drive.

I don't believe there were any drivers to delete. The USB external cases are usually very plug and play, no additional drivers required. It sounds more like the external case/USB failed. Do you hear the drive spin up? Does it make any repeated click-click-click noises?

 

[LPGM2003]

When our computer died, I bought an external hard drive enclosure so we could access the old hard drive from the new PC to save the data. Hooked up the unit and walla there was my hard drive. Dumb me, I didn't immediately download it to the new PC. Overnight, Vista deleted the driver or something. Now I cannot get the unit to work. PC sees it, but cannot access it. Tried hooking it up to my laptop, but still won't access it. It did not come with a driver disk, it was supposed to be plug and play. Wife tried putting the old PC back together and using the new monitor in case the problem all slong was the monitor. It wasn't. No joy.

How can I find out what driver I need?
Anybody know how to get this thing to work?
This is an emergency situation as our address book is on the hard drive.

Right click on My Computerm and go to Manage

Click on the Disk Management

Does it show up there? You may just have to assign it a drive letter.

 

[huntr1]

Thanks.

It does spin up.

Don't recall any click-click-click.

Gonna try the drive letter part.

 

[Patch Tuesday]

Thanks.

It does spin up.

Don't recall any click-click-click.

Gonna try the drive letter part.

Go in the hardware device manager, should be able to get there through the control panel in Vista, and look at the USB devices. Look for one having an error, X on it etc, and if so, highlight it, right click on it, and choose remove it with the drive not plugged in.

When you plug the drive back in it will reinstall a driver again...

If you actually need a driver, you should be going out to the device manufacturers website and getting it from there...

 

[basher]

When our computer died, I bought an external hard drive enclosure so we could access the old hard drive from the new PC to save the data. Hooked up the unit and walla there was my hard drive. Dumb me, I didn't immediately download it to the new PC. Overnight, Vista deleted the driver or something. Now I cannot get the unit to work. PC sees it, but cannot access it. Tried hooking it up to my laptop, but still won't access it. It did not come with a driver disk, it was supposed to be plug and play. Wife tried putting the old PC back together and using the new monitor in case the problem all slong was the monitor. It wasn't. No joy.

How can I find out what driver I need?
Anybody know how to get this thing to work?
This is an emergency situation as our address book is on the hard drive.

I thought the old computer died? You said the PC sees the drive but you cannot access it, can you still see the folders in the drive? maybe you need to reset sharing permissions or take ownership of your files/folders. i'm not sure how to do it on vista, but here's a link on how to do it on XP
How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP

 

[sowhat]

If your old computer died, maybe it was the hard drive???

 

[czygvtwkr]

IF there is no power cable many USB devices such as hard drives can not receive enough power through the USB port, this is particularly true if you are going through a hub. My USB powered external drive will work when connected directly to the computers port but not if i plug it into my hub.

 

[Dymphna]

Ok, so I tell huntr...dur this thing is just busted...the external drive thingy isn't turning on anymore at all. Sooooo, he stopped on the way home and bought a new one...one that specifically says it is compatible with Vista.

So, we hook it up, it sets up the driver and then gives the error message that although the driver is installed, "the device failed to start"

It does not show up in Disk Manager. In Device Manager, it shows up, but with an exclamation point indicating that it's not working. I did as suggested here and deleted it and attempted to reinstall. It re-installs the driver and still fails to start. (same error message).

Now it's clicking at me.

AND YES the hard drive is messed up, the dying error messages said it had some incompatible hardware installed that needed to be uninstalled, but that shouldn't stop this new device from being recognized, I wouldn't think. I could understand not being able to retrieve all the files, but it should at least tell me there are files there. This thing won't even recognize the hardware properly, much less the software.

Oh, also, it has it's own power source, so power shouldn't be the issue.

 

[Patch Tuesday]

Ok, so I tell huntr...dur this thing is just busted...the external drive thingy isn't turning on anymore at all. Sooooo, he stopped on the way home and bought a new one...one that specifically says it is compatible with Vista.

So, we hook it up, it sets up the driver and then gives the error message that although the driver is installed, "the device failed to start"

It does not show up in Disk Manager. In Device Manager, it shows up, but with an exclamation point indicating that it's not working. I did as suggested here and deleted it and attempted to reinstall. It re-installs the driver and still fails to start. (same error message).

Now it's clicking at me.

AND YES the hard drive is messed up, the dying error messages said it had some incompatible hardware installed that needed to be uninstalled, but that shouldn't stop this new device from being recognized, I wouldn't think. I could understand not being able to retrieve all the files, but it should at least tell me there are files there. This thing won't even recognize the hardware properly, much less the software.

Oh, also, it has it's own power source, so power shouldn't be the issue.

Where you deleted the bad device, try deleting it again, but then also delete the USB device that belongs to the PC that is the parent device. It might say something like Intel USB 2.0 blah blah blah...

Then reboot the PC and let it reinstall the USB chipset and new drive...

Also right click on the bad device and check out the properties. Is it set to only allow signed drivers? Is it claiming a certain IRQ that can be changed?

I'm on a MAC so I can only give this advice by visualizing your issue...

 

[Patch Tuesday]

Ok, so I tell huntr...dur this thing is just busted...the external drive thingy isn't turning on anymore at all. Sooooo, he stopped on the way home and bought a new one...one that specifically says it is compatible with Vista.

So, we hook it up, it sets up the driver and then gives the error message that although the driver is installed, "the device failed to start"

It does not show up in Disk Manager. In Device Manager, it shows up, but with an exclamation point indicating that it's not working. I did as suggested here and deleted it and attempted to reinstall. It re-installs the driver and still fails to start. (same error message).

Now it's clicking at me.

AND YES the hard drive is messed up, the dying error messages said it had some incompatible hardware installed that needed to be uninstalled, but that shouldn't stop this new device from being recognized, I wouldn't think. I could understand not being able to retrieve all the files, but it should at least tell me there are files there. This thing won't even recognize the hardware properly, much less the software.

Oh, also, it has it's own power source, so power shouldn't be the issue.

Do the remove and reinstall all USB controllers...

Advanced troubleshooting tips for general USB problems in Windows XP

Use search to find the run box in Vista if it's hidden...

 

[Patch Tuesday]

Ok, so I tell huntr...dur this thing is just busted...the external drive thingy isn't turning on anymore at all. Sooooo, he stopped on the way home and bought a new one...one that specifically says it is compatible with Vista.

So, we hook it up, it sets up the driver and then gives the error message that although the driver is installed, "the device failed to start"

It does not show up in Disk Manager. In Device Manager, it shows up, but with an exclamation point indicating that it's not working. I did as suggested here and deleted it and attempted to reinstall. It re-installs the driver and still fails to start. (same error message).

Now it's clicking at me.

AND YES the hard drive is messed up, the dying error messages said it had some incompatible hardware installed that needed to be uninstalled, but that shouldn't stop this new device from being recognized, I wouldn't think. I could understand not being able to retrieve all the files, but it should at least tell me there are files there. This thing won't even recognize the hardware properly, much less the software.

Oh, also, it has it's own power source, so power shouldn't be the issue.

Here's some more...

Search The Knowledge Base

 

[clevalley]

HUNTR - if this unit still does not work it sounds like the USB interface in the drive went Tango Uniform...

Give me a call and I can get the drive from you, take it apart and stick the just the drive on a "jig" I have here @ work to get the data off of it for you - if the drive inside the external case is still alive...

I will try to call you later if I think about it...

 

[Dymphna]

Ok, so I called tech support for the enclosure. They tell me that it won't do what we bought it for. The hard drive inside needs to be "partitioned" before it'll work. That process, they tell me will wipe the memory of the drive.

Basically they told me I should take it to Geek Squad or someplace like that and get them to retrieve my data and partition the drive so I can use it strictly for external storage.

 

[GWguy]

Ok, so I called tech support for the enclosure. They tell me that it won't do what we bought it for. The hard drive inside needs to be "partitioned" before it'll work. That process, they tell me will wipe the memory of the drive.

Basically they told me I should take it to Geek Squad or someplace like that and get them to retrieve my data and partition the drive so I can use it strictly for external storage.

There's a few of here that can do that for you guys. Clevalley offered, I can offer.....

 

[forestal]

Friends don't let friends use Vista.

 

[clevalley]

Update -

I got the HD from HUNTR and it appears to be a controller board issue... the drive does spin up, but it is not recognized when connected to a USB cradle. I am going to take it in work tomorrow and see if it can be recognized on an IDE bus - but I doubt it...

With that said, does someone have a Western Digital Protege series HDD laying around that works? I am going to search @ work tomorrow, but if someone has one I want to remove the controller card and swap them - get the data off and retire the drive...

Attached are a few pictures showing the controller board on and off the drive for reference.

 

[GWguy]

Looks like a 3.5" ?? 40Mb. I'll look when I get to the office tomorrow....

 

[clevalley]

Looks like a 3.5" ?? 40Mb. I'll look when I get to the office tomorrow....

Yes - it is 3.5 form... 40GB

We have done this with other drives in the same family like Seagate, we have even swapped between IDE and SATA boards.

Thanks GW!

 

[Patch Tuesday]

I got the HD from HUNTR and it appears to be a controller board issue... the drive does spin up, but it is not recognized when connected to a USB cradle. I am going to take it in work tomorrow and see if it can be recognized on an IDE bus - but I doubt it...

With that said, does someone have a Western Digital Protege series HDD laying around that works? I am going to search @ work tomorrow, but if someone has one I want to remove the controller card and swap them - get the data off and retire the drive...

Attached are a few pictures showing the controller board on and off the drive for reference.

You should ask that UnixPirate forumite. I think he works with Smartco and they have all kinds of junk lying around...