External Hard Drive Won't Read, Help!

[alvinstraight38]

Hey guys,

I did a Windows reinstall on my PC today, and completely reformatted
the hard drive as well. Prior to the reinstall, I backed up all my
important files to my external HD.

The reinstall went ok, but when I plugged in the external, the drive
does not show up in my computer. I tried plugging in another USB
device and it does get recognized. I've tried different ports,
unplugging and replugging the external. Windows does make that USB
noise when I plug it in, but it just shows "mass storage device". I
can't imagine it is the USB cable because it was working just a few
hours ago. I tried plugging the external into my laptop and it would
not recognize there either. Please help. I have important files on
this thing

 

[Stanley]

Hey guys,

I did a Windows reinstall on my PC today, and completely reformatted
the hard drive as well. Prior to the reinstall, I backed up all my
important files to my external HD.

The reinstall went ok, but when I plugged in the external, the drive
does not show up in my computer. I tried plugging in another USB
device and it does get recognized. I've tried different ports,
unplugging and replugging the external. Windows does make that USB
noise when I plug it in, but it just shows "mass storage device". I
can't imagine it is the USB cable because it was working just a few
hours ago. I tried plugging the external into my laptop and it would
not recognize there either. Please help. I have important files on
this thing

Right click on My Computer icon
Select Manage
Select Disk Management
Find the Volume and alocate it a drive letter

 

[alvinstraight38]

Right click on My Computer icon
Select Manage
Select Disk Management
Find the Volume and alocate it a drive letter- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I tried that, and it now shows a new drive, but it wants to format my
hard drive. That would erase my backup right? This is a Western
Digital Element HD. I downloaded their diagnostic tool, and it was
able to recognize the external.