[me4ever3131]

These are the steps I have taken since my last post:

run Malwarebytes Anti-Malware as a full scan (not quick scan) - no infections found
run a full scan with AVAST - no infections found
run a Boot time scan with AVAST - no infections found

No sign of the D drive in windows explorer or disk management so had a look under Device Manager / Disk Drives & that only showed 1 HDD.

I ran Partition Find & Mount but that didn't find it either.

Then I turned off all power & physically unplugged the "D" HDD, rebooted to make sure everything was still OK; turned off all the power & plugged the "D" HDD back in & rebooted - I was hoping that Windows would recognise it as new hardware & go through its normal recognition process. All of this was to no avail - Windows didn't show any sign of it being there.

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OK. Please give me some time to figure out what can we do next.

[maliprog]

OK. Please give me some time to figure out what can we do next.

[me4ever3131]

Ok

[happyrock]

I just reread this topic...
there are 2 things to try...
first is to remove the D drive and slave it to a different computer...if that computer see's the drive format it then reconnect to the original computer and if it see's the drive try copying some data to it...just a small amount....then run chkdsk /r on the D drive...
that will allow windows to locate any bad sectors and mark them as bad so windows won't ever try using them again...
nojoy...
replace the drive...
I would also recommend scanning your backups for malware

[me4ever3131]

Thanks for your reply;

This is where I'm at-
I've run AVAST anti virus in full mode plus rootkit scans on all my ext HDDs (back-up drives) plus I've run Malwarebytes Anti Malware & PC Tools Spyware Doctorover them (I've also re-scanned my int HDD). Viruses were found & fixed on the ext HDDs.

I've removed the D drive - the one that isn't showing up anywhere & I thought that while I have that out I'll put in an old drive that I hadn't used for some years but it was working OK when I last used it (about 2 years ago). Interestingly the PC didn't see the drive that I installed - I'm starting to wonder if there is a problem with my PC, not just virus/malware related.

I still have to check my D drive at a mates place to see if that is working.

I'll let you know what I find there.

[happyrock]

since you installed a known good drive and your computer does not see it then
first check in your bios to dee if it sees the drive...
no...
then swap the missing in action drive data cable and try a different power connecter coming off the psu..

if this was my system I would format my backup drives thus eliminating any potential malware and then do a new backup from your clean pc to the backup drives
I know this is a huge PITA but IMHO it's worth the time