Nagayan

Hello everyone!

I have a problem with my external hard drive. It's a Western Digital 160BG hard disk (which I bought almost 3 months ago) connected to the PC through USB-IDE cable.

It was perfectly fine yesterday, I was downloading one .avi file when suddenly a message appeared at the right bottom of my screen (near the Date/Time) indicating that the file can't be transferred to the disk anymore. So I tried to remove the disk and all.

Later, it wouldn't appear in My Computer anymore.

So I try Google-ing for some solutions.

So far, Device Manager and Safely Remove Hardware recognize it all the time. But it doesn't appear in My Computer.

I saw somewhere that changing drive letter can do the trick. But usually, Computer Management DOES NOT recognize it. I tried plugging and unplugging. Once it appeared in Computer Management, I immediately changed the drive letter to M (before, my PC knows it as "E: New Volume") even though Computer Management stated that it has 100% free space when it actually has 40GB files already. But then it became "M: Local Disk".

M: Local Disk appears in My Computer but appears to be blank/raw.

I tried the chkdsk in CMD but it always says "The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error" or 'The parameter is incorrect" or "Cannot open volume for direct access".

One time, when it appeared in Computer Management again, I clicked "Marked Partition as Active" (because it stated that the disk is Healthy and Online) then it became unreadable all of a sudden.

So a lot of hours have passed and I changed the drive letter to E: again. Now it appears in My Computer as E: Local Disk which is RAW (has 0 pace, 0 everything) and is not recognized by Computer Management again. (But sometimes it doesn't appear in My Computer again)

I'm sorry that this is very long, I think it'd be helpful if I put all the details already.

Now, how do I get the hard disk to work just like before? :( I have important files there. Can I still retrieve/open them? Is there hope?

Thank you very much in advance!

P.S.

Actually, the hard disk is an Internal WD Caviar (or something like that) which I use as external hard disk, if that info is needed.

Nagayan

Here is what it looks like when it appears in Disk Management:

http://i37.tinypic.com/2s96dle.jpg

vladimirb

Hello and welcome...
Would be nice to check if it is problem with enclosure, cables or HDD...
Plug HDD directly to MB without enclosure [if you are using enclosure]
Change cables...
If you can see HDD in My Computer or Disk Management and if you can easily access all your data, then HDD is OK but rest is not...
I am a little bit worried why it states that you have 100% of free space on the disk but you are saying that you are already have data on it...
How many partitions you have on that HDD??? Only one????
Maybe it is corrupted...

Keep us posted...

Nagayan

Thanks for your reply!

I'll try to buy a new IDE-USB cable to see if it is the problem (sad that I only have one cable ). But when I connect my external DVD-ROM using the same cable, the DVD-ROM is working fine so perhaps the cable is not the problem. =/

But yes, Disk Management always states that it has 100% space which is freaking me out because it makes me think that all my data suddenly gone.

And I'm not sure if how many partitions there were when I formatted it after buying it because it was the first time that I did something like that, so I was just following the default thing, I did not edit anything.

I wonder if what could have corrupted it.

Nagayan

By the way, I tried TestDisk but in step B, my hard disk I want to analyze doesn't appear in the list. =(

vladimirb

You were using 40-pin or 80-pin IDE cable?????
It is recommended to use 80-pin IDE cable for HDDs...

Nagayan

I'm pretty sure it's a 80-pin IDE cable.

Nagayan

Partition Table Doctor also doesn't list the hard disk. =(

Nagayan

I wonder if why all the solutions that were given to others who had the same problem with mine worked and fixed the problem but not for me? :(

Help please~

vladimirb

Hey again...
Did you try with new cable????
Make sure long one side is attached to MB...
Is HDD visible in BIOS???
I would suggest to visit manufacturers Web Site and download diagnostic tools and test your HDD for possible bad sectors...

Nagayan

Ei~!!! I just bought a new USB-IDE cable just like what you advised! And my hard disk is working again! It really is a cable problem!!!!! \^0^/

Thank you very much for your assistance!!! I appreciate it a lot!!!! I hope you'll be able to help more people in this forum! Thanks again!!!!!!!!

vladimirb

Heya :)
I am glad you have solved your problem and it took less money that I have expected which is great :)
Stay with us little more, you can find a lot of interesting and helpfull things round here :)

JayC

I have a problem with my 500GB MyBook World Edition drive. Ethernet connection. Do you think you can help? I put the details under the forum for "Windows XP" before I realized this area for HDD.

vladimirb

Heya...
Ask some of the moderators to move your thread to HDD section please...