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External Hard Drive unrecognized and not showing up in Diskmgmt

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Joe - Jun 1, 2016 at 03:00 PM
R2D2_WD
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 - Jun 3, 2016 at 03:38 AM
Hi guys and gals

So, had a problem a while ago with a seagate 2tb external hard drive. Never found out what was the problem and had same issues has described as in title. Never got to fix it but after a year, it finally reappeared in the diskmgmt.msc so I formatted it and it works now.

But when it crashed, I bought a new one, a seagate 5tb. Last week, it was working well. This weekend, couldn't use Kodi to watch my videos so had to watch them through vlc. Then Monday, vlc didn't want to read them and now, disk decided to just disappear.

When plugged in, shows USB not recognize in device manager and doesn't appear in the diskmgmt.msc (and not in my pc of course).

I tried everything I could find: uninstalling device, scanning for hardware changes, multiple computers, diskmgmt, device manager, rebooting, trying multiple usb ports. Even played in cmd to do this suggestion (set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1).

I would need new suggestions to the table. Something that I would be able to keep all the data inside (most stuff I can grab again with lots of time to waste but other stuff I can't).

I'm using Windows 10 Home edition if it can help with suggestions (the other computer has windows 7)


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R2D2_WD
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 152
Jun 2, 2016 at 05:24 AM
Hi Joe,

So, right now, the external cannot be recognized by several PC and is not detected in Disk Management? I would try changing the USB cable. Open the Command Prompt and use the commands:
Diskpart
List disk

Is the drive listed there?
Furthermore try connecting the drive to a Linux PC or boot from a Linux Live version. No installation is needed. You only have to boot from a bootable USB. Check if the drive is recognized.

Hope this helps

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Joe
Jun 2, 2016 at 02:24 PM
Switched the cable with the one from the 2tb External that worked now. Showed as not recognized when I plugged. And doesn't show in disk list.

As for Linux, I don't even know a thing about that system except that it exist lol. And no one I know has it.
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R2D2_WD
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 152 > Joe
Jun 3, 2016 at 03:38 AM
So, even with the working cable, the drive is not properly recognized in Disk Management?
You can freely download a Linux live version. Burn the files on a bootable flash drive and boot the PC with the drive. Linux will load with no installation required. The interface should be very similar to Windows’s. Search for your drive and try to save the data. If none of this works or you manage to save it all, restart the PC, unplug the USB and Windows will load normally.
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