Harddrive problem

[J1mmy]

Okay, so my exernal harddrive was connected to my computer via USB. That computer it was connected to was getting a new OS installed, so it went through the format phase before installing a new windows.

Now, the problem is, whenever I connect my HD to any computer, it doesn't show it up in My Computer. From the searches that I've already done, it seems that I might need to format it?

This is actually my backup hard drive, so it has my LIFE on it! There's no way i could consider formatting it, seriously. There must be a way to make it work.

It's a WD My Book 320GB, it's also possible to remove the hard drive from it's casing and connect it via SATA, should I try this?

[Steve R Jones]

Course now you know to unplug drives like this during an OS install...

Look to see if the drive shows up in Disk Management. Does it have a drive letter assigned?

[J1mmy]

Why does it do that to every drive during an OS install? The exact same thing happened to my flash drive.

No, nothing came up in Disk Management, it showed up an unallocated.

I downloaded some disk recovery software, it's found the data and now I'm copying it off the drive.

[Steve R Jones]

Drives are drives....Windows wants you to use em so it gives them/attempts to assign them letters.

Many times if a flash drive it plugged in, Windows will call it C drive and your hard drive some other letter....