Can't get access to my external harddrive

[noxskuses]

I have the exact same issue Kristensen had, and cannot find a solution for it anywhere.

I recently upgraded to Win8, hated it, and went back to Win7. I mistakenly didn't remove my external hard drive in the process, and when I went back to Win7, it has lost it's volume drive and I cannot access the files on it (Was fine when I upgraded to Win8).

I uninstalled the external hard drive, and plugged it in again. Win7 recognised it, added the correct driver and says its ready for use. I can also see it it 'device manager', and it says it's working fine.

I can also see it in disk management, but it has no volume drive letter and the assign drive letter and paths' is greyed out and not available. In fact nothing is available except 'delete volume' and 'help'.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can access the files as they are really important? Someone said to strip the casing from the hard drive and install it like a regular internal hard drive, but like something less drastic if possible. The hard drive is a WD5000AAC.

If a disk recovery service say they can get the files for me, it must be possible to do.

Any help much appreciated.

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

Sounds like you need the right driver.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=2&lang=en

 

[noxskuses]

Thanks for the help, but a new driver is not available or required for this external hard drive > http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers...bWUvMTM1NTIxNjgzMy9zaWQvVC1uTlVzZGw=#ELEMENTS

When I plug it in, Windows7 recognises it immediately, installs the correct driver, and a message pops up informing me 'Your WD5000 external hard drive is installed correctly and ready to use'.

It is named and listed in the Device Manager, and shows in the disk management section, but without a volume drive letter.

I know I can 'delete' the drive, and then allocate a volume drive letter, but obviously I need access to the contents on the hard drive first.

Does anyone know of any decent software that can recover files etc. from a hard drive? Would a data recovery program work?

 

[EvanDavis]

Does anyone know of any decent software that can recover files etc. from a hard drive? Would a data recovery program work?

http://www.piriform.com/recuva

 

[noxskuses]

Thanks for the link, but just discovered the answer to my own question 'Would a data recovery program work?' is 'no', as they require you to select the drive you want to search, and as my problem is the computer is not allocating my external drive a volume letter, it doesn't appear and cannot be search.

Back to square one, but worth a shot

 

[EvanDavis]

Thanks for the link, but just discovered the answer to my own question 'Would a data recovery program work?' is 'no', as they require you to select the drive you want to search, and as my problem is the computer is not allocating my external drive a volume letter, it doesn't appear and cannot be search.

Back to square one, but worth a shot

Have you tried using Diskpart to allocate a drive letter to the dive ?

 

[noxskuses]

Have accessed Diskpart, but not sure what commands to use that will help me out. Any suggestions?

 

[EvanDavis]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc757491(v=ws.10).aspx#BKMK_CMD

 

[noxskuses]

Step 3: At the DISKPART prompt, type: list volume
Make note of the number of the simple volume whose drive letter you want to assign, change, or remove.

That's the problem right there. My computer won't assign my external hard drive a volume letter, so it doesn't show up.

 

[EvanDavis]

Step 3: At the DISKPART prompt, type: list volume
Make note of the number of the simple volume whose drive letter you want to assign, change, or remove.

That's the problem right there. My computer won't assign my external hard drive a volume letter, so it doesn't show up.

Can you take a screen shot of CMD so we can so we can see please ?

 

[noxskuses]

CMD?

 

[EvanDavis]

The command window you opened to use diskpart

 

[noxskuses]

Here we go;

 

[EvanDavis]

can you do one that shows results for

DISKPART> list disk

 

[noxskuses]

 

[EvanDavis]

I shall get back to you on this one shortly, just experimenting on my own drive before I tell you to do something and potentially help you lose whatever is on your drive. I am sure Silverhasesurfer will know where I am going with this.
In the mean time have you tried using WD drive check tool ? I had similar issue before and ran the tool and when it was done the drive was back to normal

 

[noxskuses]

Much appreciated.

These are the only programs listed on the WD site that are associated with my external hard drive;

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows << Is this it?
Spindown or Stop Utility version 1.0
WD Logo Icon
External USB/FireWire Fat32 Formatting Utility

 

[noxskuses]

Installed and activated Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows. It scanned the external drive ok and checked for errors (none), but didn't allocate it a volume drive letter.

 

[noxskuses]

Would this solve the problem?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bipra-SATA-...SK56/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355312079&sr=8-1

 

[noxskuses]

Any help really appreciated with this, as the drive contains important family pictures that are irreplaceable.