External Hard drive - why can't access it?

[John Smith]

Advice appreciated.
In brief - 500GB Maxtor External Hard drive plugged into Windows 7 pc - can
read what's on the drive ok. When plugged into an XP pc however can't access
it. How to be able to access it on an xp pc?

More info..it belongs to a mate of mine. Its in my possession now, however,
to try to sort it.
A clue as to how it got like it is...friend uses it with his xp pc. A few
weeks ago he said it presented with do you want to format the drive, he said
yes (don't ask!)..it wirred away for a couple hours he said then stopped. He
switched it on and couldn't access anything and assumed he'd wiped the lot.
He now can't access it from his xp pc. It seems he has lost much of the
content but still some untouched, and, as I say accessible via my w7 pc but
not my xp pc.
When I plug it into my xp pc an icon is shown in My Computer but when
clicking to open it, it displays...drive E is not formatted, do you want to
format it now?..
It also shows in Disc Management as E partition basic healthy capacity
127gb, free space 117gb, then graphically as disc 1 basic on-line and as E
is split into three bits - 104gb unallocated, 811gb! healthy and 259gb
healthy (unknown partition).
It also shows in Device Manager - shows up ok there as Maxtor Basics Desktop
USB Device and says the device is working properly.
So, question 1 is How to view the contents of the EHDrive on the xp pc?...
....and question 2, once the above is resolved, is there any chance friend
will be able to once again access the stuff that has disappeared when he
formatted 3/4 of the drive?

Thanks in advance.

 

[John Smith]

Also, have a look here
http://techqa.wordpress.com/2007/03/04/windows-cant-see-usb-hard-drive/

It's a collection of tips you will find searching the problem thru guugle

 

[John Smith]

Well, recover whatever data you want to your win7 computer.

To recover data on the formatted partition(s), try PC Inspector, a free
prog that once worked for me when commercial file recovery programs
failed. Try this first, before doing anything else-- just connect the
drive and run PC inspector and see if it finds the USB drive and see if it
finds any data on the formatted partition. If it does, recover what you
can, saving it of course somewhere other than the usb drive.
It is here: http://www.pcinspector.de/default.htm?po=1&language=1

If it doesn't find the drive, try removing drive letters EACH partition on
the device in XP's Disk Management. Then give them new letters then
rescan the drive. See if that helps.

BTW which XP - pro or home?

There is an arcane reason why XP will fail to see a USB device.
Here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196 .

Good luck.

 

[John Smith]

Well, recover whatever data you want to your win7 computer.

To recover data on the formatted partition(s), try PC Inspector, a free
prog that once worked for me when commercial file recovery programs
failed. Try this first, before doing anything else-- just connect the
drive and run PC inspector and see if it finds the USB drive and see if it
finds any data on the formatted partition. If it does, recover what you
can, saving it of course somewhere other than the usb drive.
It is here: http://www.pcinspector.de/default.htm?po=1&language=1

If it doesn't find the drive, try removing drive letters EACH partition on
the device in XP's Disk Management. Then give them new letters then
rescan the drive. See if that helps.

BTW which XP - pro or home?

There is an arcane reason why XP will fail to see a USB device.
Here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196 .

Good luck.

-------------------
Failed :-(
pcinspector looked and looked but couldn't detect anything...not
even the files that we know are there (viewable via w7).
changed the drive letter E to F but still no go.
May just click yes when it says do you want to format the drive.
Thanks for your help.