External Drive Missing

[tblack]

Someone please help me. I run Win XP Pro and have two 80GB Que!
external HDs. They have both worked perfectly for a couple of years.
Suddenly one of the drives (& all partitions on it) is missing. In
Computer Management under Disk Management the drive doesn't show at
all. Under Device Manger it shows with a little yellow exclamation
trouble icon. I have reinstalled it and I have tried disconnecting it
and then reconnecting it. Nothing. Someone please give me some help.
I'd appreciate it.

 

[Jim]

Someone please help me. I run Win XP Pro and have two 80GB Que!
external HDs. They have both worked perfectly for a couple of years.
Suddenly one of the drives (& all partitions on it) is missing. In
Computer Management under Disk Management the drive doesn't show at
all. Under Device Manger it shows with a little yellow exclamation
trouble icon. I have reinstalled it and I have tried disconnecting it
and then reconnecting it. Nothing. Someone please give me some help.
I'd appreciate it.

The yellow exclamation point is a very bad sign. I would suspect a hardware
failure of the disk or controller.
You should run the maker's disk diagnostics.
Jim

 

[Anna]

The yellow exclamation point is a very bad sign. I would suspect a
hardware failure of the disk or controller.
You should run the maker's disk diagnostics.
Jim

tblack:
As Jim says, not a good sign...

Here are some general troubleshooting tips, some of which may or may not
apply to your
specific problem. I realize you may have tried many, if not most, of the
following, but for what it's worth here they are...
1. Access Disk Management and see if the USB device is listed. If so, and
there's no drive letter assigned, see if you can assign a drive letter to
the device.
2. If the USB device is listed in Disk Management with an assigned drive
letter, right-click on its listing and select Explore from the submenu.
Hopefully, Windows Explorer will open and the device will be listed.
3. Connect the USB device *directly* to a USB port on the computer, not via
a USB hub. Try different USB ports if your computer has more than one.
4. Do not use a USB extension cable.
5. Try alternate powering on/off methods. If the USB device contains its own
power supply, try booting up with its power on, then try powering on only
*after* the system has booted to a Desktop.
6. Try a different USB cable.
7. In the USB controllers section of Device Manager, uninstall all the USB
controllers listed and reboot.
8. If the device in question is HD which you installed in a USB enclosure,
jumper the USB external HD as Master (or Single if the HD is a Western
Digital disk). A number of users have reported that jumper configuration
corrected their non-recognition problem. In my own experience it didn't seem
to matter how a USB external HD was jumpered. But it may be worth a try.
9. If the device in question is a USB external HD, first check out the HD
with the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic utility. If it checks out OK,
and you can remove the HD from its enclosure (without voiding any
applicable warranty), do so and install the HD as an internal HD to
determine if there are problems with the drive.
10. If the USB device is connected to a USB 2.0 PCI card, try changing the
PCI slot to which it's currently connected to another one.
11. Access the website of the manufacturer of the USB device to determine if
there's any firmware update or info re the problem you're experiencing or
there's any possibility that the USB enclosure itself might be defective.

I'm not sure but I don't think the manufacturer of your USB EHD (QPS) is in
business anymore but try a Google search.
Anna