jsykes

hi guys im stumped on this one im a former computer tech and I cant even figure this out. Ive tried a new cord, Ive checked bios, checked the device manager, tried updating drivers, tried disabling and re-enabling usb mass storage driver. im completely stumped the hard drive shows up in safely disconnect hardware and no where else. Any ideas I got a virus right after this started finally wiped it out but still cant pull up hard drive

raptor_pa

What does it show in disk management? How is it reported in Safely remove, the last device in the list for that port?

DS Negi

Hi, i have a similar problem, i've posted about it in the Viruses section. I wonder if we can benefit from similar circumstance information. Details below::

Hello,

I have a 250GB Western Digital passport external hard drive that has suddenly stopped working. It last worked fine before a small fall from the table but I suspect the real reason for it not functioning is the presence of a virus.

Now, when I connect the hard drive, it is detected by the PC, the driver is loaded the first time if run on a new PC (I’ve tried it on many PC’s) but no new drive is shown in My Computer. Sometimes, it shows up as the letter G:\ in My Computer (previously it was F:\). It is also extremely slow. The drive does not open on double clicking/right click>>explore or via any application, the computer/application just freezes. It goes back to normal on removal of hard drive.

I would have thought this is due to the fall it suffered, but I have found the recent virus “Autorun.inf” in my PC and another Hard Drive plus a few Trojan horses which leads me to believe that it might have to do with the non functioning of my hard drive. I have tried running various Antivirus programs like AVG, spybot, Trojan removers etc, they’ve removed a few viruses but I’m not convinced my PC is clean. I’ve also tried the procedure of removing all Autorun.inf files from the PC & drives from command prompt as suggested in discussion forums online.

Now when I try to open my WD hard drive (letter G:\) in any way, it either freezes or recommends a format of the hard drive. I am assuming that it would function fine after a format, but I have about 200GB of valuable data in it which I am afraid to lose. I am aware that there are data recovery softwares which can recover formatted files but since I haven’t ever done it before, I am not sure how robust that recovery is or if the files and folders are recovered in the same manner (ie files in the correct folders). I fear that recovery might not work on this virus subjected Hard drive or if it works, that some files might be lost, and the rest be recovered in a random mixed up fashion making 200GB of files a complete chaos.

Please help. Much appreciated.

Negi

Further information: The hard drive shows up in Safely remove hardware, but does not always appear as an icon in My Computer. If it occasionally does (as G:\), then it still wont open.. just freeze.

It shows up similarly in Disk management. I've also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers.

jsykes

nothing in disk management. the only thing safely remove hardware says is usb mass storage drive. I have 3 things left to try. take case apart, try it on another computer. and to hardwire it. just hoping not to have to try and take stuff apart unless i have to

jsykes

when i got the virus it was showing that i had 4 disk drives which i dont. after the virus that was gone but still no disk drive