Windows 7 won't recognise external HDD

[sangeeth85]

Hi,

I was backing up data from my computer to an external WD HDD when a blue screen appeared and starting dumping my physical memory (I found it that was due to a motherboard issue and have fixed that problem). The computer then restarted and now it won't read my external HDD anymore. Now when I connect the HDD to my computer I can hear the "bell" sound (telling me that the computer recognises that I have connected something via USB) but i can't find the drive in my computer or anywhere? Is there a way to overcome this and recover my data?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

try this.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771486.aspx

start>right click computer>computer management>left side frame: Disk Management

Look in the lower right pane to see if you see the drive. If not, check to see that the drive is recognized in device manager. Same window, left side, click device manager, right side, Drives.

Past that point, check to see if the drive powers and spins up. Try another USB port. Maybe a front one. Try to see if it works in another machine.

 

[sangeeth85]

Hi Surfer,

Unfortunately I have still had no luck with this HDD. It appears in the device manager but that is as far as i get. I have tried a number of different USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports but i get the same problem with each where it still doesn't appear in My Computer. I don't have any other computers to try it in. Do you have any other suggestions for this?

 

[Silverhazesurfer]

start>right click computer>computer management>left side frame: Disk Management


Do you see a disk in disk managment that shows up and disappears when you connect/disconnect it?

If so, follow the instructions in the link.

Here is a little bit more information on disk initialization.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc771775.aspx