problem with external hard drive

saethone · 03-04-2005, 08:34 PM

ok I have an external hard drive (http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...orage%203000LS ) 40 g version

it was working fine then one day i tried to access a file on it and it said it needed to be reformatted

that time i reformatted it, wasn't worried too much about the stuff on it

however its done it again - it lost its name information and says it needs to be formatted again..

i don't mind losing the data on there this time either, but i'd really like it to stop happening :)

any suggestions? running winxp sp2

johnwill · 03-05-2005, 11:17 AM

Before you reformat it, try right clicking on the left side of the Disk Management display and Initialize the drive, see if that helps.

saethone · 03-20-2005, 09:24 PM

hmm where on the left side do i click? i see the option to make it active but nothing about initilization

johnwill · 03-21-2005, 08:41 AM

It depends on the state of the drive, it doesn't appear if it's not appropriate. It's odd that you'd have this issue, I suspect something is wrong with the USB <> IDE controller or the drive itself.

I've used USB/Firewire drives for years, and I have never seen this happen.

saethone · 03-21-2005, 01:50 PM

boo =\

oh well thanks for the help :)

03-04-2005, 08:34 PM	#1 (permalink)
saethone Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 9 OS: Windows XP	problem with external hard drive ok I have an external hard drive (http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...orage%203000LS ) 40 g version it was working fine then one day i tried to access a file on it and it said it needed to be reformatted that time i reformatted it, wasn't worried too much about the stuff on it however its done it again - it lost its name information and says it needs to be formatted again.. i don't mind losing the data on there this time either, but i'd really like it to stop happening :) any suggestions? running winxp sp2

03-05-2005, 11:17 AM	#2 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 32,608 OS: XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	Before you reformat it, try right clicking on the left side of the Disk Management display and Initialize the drive, see if that helps. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

03-20-2005, 09:24 PM	#3 (permalink)
saethone Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 9 OS: Windows XP	hmm where on the left side do i click? i see the option to make it active but nothing about initilization Last edited by saethone : 03-20-2005 at 09:28 PM.

03-21-2005, 08:41 AM	#4 (permalink)
johnwill Manager, Networking Forums Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania, US Posts: 32,608 OS: XP-Pro, Vista, Linux Blog Entries: 1	It depends on the state of the drive, it doesn't appear if it's not appropriate. It's odd that you'd have this issue, I suspect something is wrong with the USB <> IDE controller or the drive itself. I've used USB/Firewire drives for years, and I have never seen this happen. __________________ If TSF has helped you, Tell us about it! or Donate to help keep the site up! Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

03-21-2005, 01:50 PM	#5 (permalink)
saethone Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 9 OS: Windows XP	boo =\ oh well thanks for the help :)