Maxtor External Hard Drive is suddenly gone!! HELP!

Renchr · November 30th, 2008, 07:19 PM

I shut my computer down last night. We lost power a few times during the night. I don't know if that caused my problem or not. This morning I went to access files on my external hard drive and it was not listed in my computer. It has just disappeared. I unhooked it and plugged it back in but it is not being read by my computer. My computer shows no recognition of my external hard drive and it was just there yesterday. Anyone else have an experience like this? I really need the files on my external hard drive and I do not have them saved anywhere else. Please help.

glendalf81 · December 1st, 2008, 08:07 AM

its possible that if your external drive was being accessed during the power faliure it may have been wiped, use some partition management software to see if that detects it as unallocated if so then it needs to be re-formatted in the file system in which your system uses e.i. NTFS for windows xp and after in order for it to be detected.
that being said your data is not completely lost as there are many data recovery softwares that can recover data even from a re-formatted drive
also is there power to the external drive as it may be something simple like a blown power supply?

you could also try taking the eternal hard drie apart and connecting the HDD direct to your motherboard as you may have fried the control board in the caddy

MegalosSkylaki · December 1st, 2008, 08:23 AM

If you are using Windows, go to My Computer and look for it as a hard drive.
If the external hard drive shows there, double click to open it.
Ooops, sounds like you may have already done that...

Did you have an icon for it on your task or tool bar? Double right click if its still there. Click Open or Run.

Go to RUN and type msconfig. See if it is on Start Menu.

Also, you might be able to access it through Windows Explorer.

Did you check your USB connection?

Also, USB sometimes does not have enough power, so it may require a PS/2 boosting connector or an Adapter. Also, check the connection of the Adapter and power strip its on.

Try going to SEARCH, pick Advanced Options, enter the letter of its drive before it was "lost" and look for a known file on the letter of the Maxtor drive.

DOOOG

Ps. did you add any other drives? Sometimes Lettering of drives can change.

glendalf81 · December 1st, 2008, 08:39 AM

megalos it looks like that is what he has tried as you have listed all the ways to find a hard drive on a computer running windows

also the problem is not switched drive letters, the hard drive is not being detected, i have had this problem before and 9 times out of 10 it is caused by the drive being wiped by power loss

lawaimike · December 28th, 2008, 12:07 AM

I have a UPS, my Maxtor 750 GB One Touch is gone forever. What a piece of junk. Six months of work erased, and no, I will not send it somewhere to pay someone else to "recover" my files, which were all on the Maxtor junk. I am not happy at all.

1sys · December 31st, 2008, 10:24 PM

I have the exact same problem with the same HD. Maxtor One touch, i bought it a year or so years ago. When i use Acronis True image (partitioning software) it sees the HD but it says unallocated? How can i re-format the drive? what software to use? also ifetr i reformat, any what is a good software for data recovery.
thanks and happy new year all.