External drive not recognised by PC

[SeldomFixit]

I have a Toshiba External HDD, USB 3.0 that shows up in device manager ( no volume info available though ) but is not otherwise accessible. It appears to have no drive letter allocated, I've done some web trawling and other than send us some $ for our software or perform a data recovery, I've not found a fix. My PC is a Win 7 OS.
Any help appreciated
SF :ok:

[bsmasher]

I had something similar a while ago on an XP machine. In the end it came down to the drive letter that the External drive was using had been mapped by something else, and as a result of the conflict the external drive lost out and never appeared.

I can't remember exactly where I deleted the unwanted mapping , but look for unused drives in the F-H range ( your PC may be different ) and remove them It may allow the HDD to by properly found

Good luck

D.

[crewmeal]

May be it needs formatting in 'FAT 32' for Windows to recognise it. If I try and put an 'Mac formatted' external drive into a Windows machine it won't show up.

[Avtrician]

Yes, more than like a drive conflict. Happens all the time with memory sticks that are used and have been mapped on another machine.

Try re allocating you last drive to a free letter ( with new drive disconnected ) then plug the other drive in. If that works, re letter the new drive to a free letter then put the old one back.

Its a bit of messing around, but should fix it.

[Winnerhofer]

Best to update all drivers before installing.
It's the USB slot needs updating.
Then connect your external drive and see if that's ok.
If not, relaunch driver updater with the external drive attached.
Use Driver Genius, Driver Detective or Driver Booster in that order to troubleshoot.

[SeldomFixit]

Thank you all for the suggestions :ok:
Drivers are all up to date - Disk manager won't allow drive letter rename on the problem HDD. I renamed my PC's "F" and reattached the external - still not recognised. Under disk manager it doesn't show a file system but properties shows it as being FAT32. There is no Volume name available and continues to confound me. It's possible that it may have been attached to a MAC previously but with the file system being FAT32...?
I'll attach it to a MAC and see what happens.
Again - thank you all. Enlightening and appreciated.
SF

[dazdaz1]

W/xp as does W/7 uses the NTFS file system for HD I imagine the HDD might need to be formatted to NTFS. This link might help.............

Comparing NTFS and FAT file systems (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-vista/comparing-ntfs-and-fat-file-systems)

Daz

[SeldomFixit]

Thanks Daz - having no Volume name or assigned drive letter makes it impossible to convert the file system from FAT32 to NTFS unfortunately.

[BOAC]

Don't worry, W7 reads FAT 32. What happened on the Mac?

Edit: If it is USB powered, is it getting 'enough'?

[Mac the Knife]

Some external enclosures have problems dealing with big drives.

I've had one that flinched at anything over 2TB and two (including a USB3 box) that became confused with 4TB drives.

Mac

:cool:

[uncle8]

I had a similar Toshiba external HDD with the same problem. Tried everything I, and others, could think of - no joy. Returned it to the place of purchase-computer shop, full of experts-they tested it on their computer - same problem. Told me that they have had lots of returns of these so gave me another one, different brand, which works perfectly.

[SeldomFixit]

No joy on the MAC either BOAC - being used on a USB 3 connection. Have gone down the data recovery road and will look into a new drive. :ok:

[crewmeal]

If you decide on a new hard drive think about an SSD. They're coming down in price, they're much faster and in my view an excellent investment. It saves me buying a new Macbook Pro. Mine is 500gb and cost £159.

[airpolice]

Get the free version of EASEUS and see if that can tell you anything about the drive, if not, it is probably gubbed.

[Keef]

I was about to say the same - try EASEUS.

If you can't allocate it a drive letter using Disk Management, then something is adrift. It may be power - USB-powered hard drives can be a pain. EASEUS will tell you, and may be able to format it for you.

[SeldomFixit]

EASUS free version trialled - no help, sadly.
New drive on the way.
RIP old drive.
Thank you all for your assistance and wisdom.
SF