[ying423]

hi there, ive read some similar situations to mine here, but none seem to be exact matches.

ive been using an iomega 500GB external drive for about 2 years to store music and photos rather than taking up my C drive memory. its big and hard to transport so was considering replacing it next pay check. it had been working fine but a few days ago i noticed that the usb cable doesnt fit tightly into the hard drive box anymore and needed to be
wiggled a bit or the drive would not show up. then yesterday while watching a movie stored on there i saw a windows error message saying that the drive needed to be
formatted, i declined this and a while later it popped up again. later it kept giving me a message saying that the drive needed to be connected to a high power usb port even though it has its own power supply. i checked the usb was plugged in properly and when i looked again the drive disappeared from the computer and i couldnt find it. this morning it was found as drive D without naming it iomega as usual. i could not open the folder to view any files.

after some research i checked in disk manager where it showed up as healthy and i switched it to require safe hardware removal rather than plug and play because that was the only option to change. i also ran virus checks and malware but nothing was found. when i rebooted the
computer it had trouble restarting and eventually i got the blue screen recommending i run check disk. it listed the iomega drive and after about 20 mins it seemed to find alot of files unreadable and deleted directories with certain extensions. when windows started up again i went into the drive and only saw two folders with program files of about 100kb even though the used space showed up as 155GB which is all my media. freaked out that i couldnt find these files i did more research, tried showing hidden files in folder options which didnt find them, and then downloaded test disk utility and followed advice on how to run that. ive rebooted the computer after running testdisk and it again came up with the blue screen of death asking to run check disk again. while i deliberated it started running so ive let it run again rather than interrupt and cause any more trouble. it seems to be taking longer this time.

thats pretty much all the detail i think of. can anyone tell me if there is still hope of recovering these files as the photos are important to me. secondly how my hard drive got corrupted in the first place so i can avoid it again. i will be getting a new hard drive so my question is about recovering those files rather than salvaging the iomega. could the problem have been caused by the loose usb cable hub and repeated unplugs while files were being used on the disk?

appreciate any help alot!

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Yes, a loose usb cable and/or repeated unplugs with the files were being used could cause problems.

The disk might be fine. One option is to open the case and directly connect the disk and see how it operates. This is also why I prefer to buy a disk and external case separately, so that it is easy to replace the case and/or the disk.

[Kemasa]

Yes, a loose usb cable and/or repeated unplugs with the files were being used could cause problems.

The disk might be fine. One option is to open the case and directly connect the disk and see how it operates. This is also why I prefer to buy a disk and external case separately, so that it is easy to replace the case and/or the disk.

[Macboatmaster]

If you mean you have changed the start type of plug and play service, then I strongly recommend you go back and change it back again to automatic - as there are a number of dependencies on that service.

If you disable plug and play you will have all sorts of problems.

On Windows generally speaking USB devices including external hard drives are hot pluggable - they can be connected with the system running.

Active devices such as a hard drive, should NEVER be disconnected without either shutting down, or using the Safely Remove hardware.
That facility Safe Remove is there to enable Windows to release its hold on the device, to ensure that before the device is removed nothing is being written to the drive, or indeed read from it and is basically, the way of removing it, as though the system had been shut down.

The disconnecting of the device, without employing the Safely Remove hardware, may well, as my colleague has said, have caused corruption of the files,.

[ying423]

thanks so much for the replies. just to add i only changed the plug and play option in disk management after i started having this problem. it was really a desperate effort to get the computer to detect the device as nothing else was having any effect. after i changed this option the computer detected that new hardware had been connected and so i knew the usb cable from the hard drive wasnt the issue. i will attempt to try plugging in the disk directly as recommended. right now im disconnecting the hard drive after shut down so that when the computer starts it doesnt go through check disk. then
when i plug in the device it goes through a quick "Autoplay" scan as it used to do, of my media files so i believe the files are there still. but when i go to open the drive folder in my computer, it gives a message saying the drive is not accessible. im at a loss with this one. i just need to try and get hold of the files somehow so i can transfer to a new hard drive. usually i can solve all my computer issues from reading other people's posts online, but not this one! thanks again.

[Macboatmaster]

Apart from the already suggested procedure of connecting the drive out of the enclosure, the only other possibility is to boot into Puppy and see if that will allow you to access the drive

http://www.geekstogo...over-your-data/

The download now goes to 528.004 and the desktop you will see is the desktop shown on the guide
Link posted with acknowledgement to Ferrari, one of our members who prepared the guide and rshaffer61, another member who has updated the guide





There is a CHANCE that Puppy will recognise the data, although Windows will not

[ying423]

Thanks for the advice, this is a great service. I have not been able to try the Puppy suggestion - as i need to buy a new external to transfer the files onto, and they are running expensive in this country at the moment, but that will be my plan if i still haven't fixed this problem. I do want to try connecting the disk directly, but i believe i will need an adapter for that, and a youtube video that talks me through it. what adapter am i looking for, specifically?

I hadnt plugged in the hard drive for a week, as it was getting pretty frustrating, but right now this is the situation when i plug in the device:

'Found new hardware message... human interface drive' pops up,

next message says "You device will perform faster when plugged into a high power USB port, for a list of available ports, click here."

when i click this, i get a dialogue box saying: "The unknown USB device is a HIGH SPEED USB device and will perform at a reduced speed when plugged into a non-High power USB port." along with a list of eight available ports

it goes through an 'Autoplay' but i dont see the file names flashing up as i used to. then finally a dialogue box saying "Your device is installed and ready to use"

going into My Computer, it still comes up as Disk D: without Iomega HD in the name. if i try to open it i get a red error message saying "D:\ IS INACCESSIBLE, error performing inpage operation"

It shows up in disk manager as healthy and active, but i dont think its being read properly as the free space shows up as 465GB and its a 500GB drive.

any suggestions or is getting that adapter and connecting the disk directly my only route, followed by waiting until I can buy an external hard drive and recovering the files using Puppy?

the only other thing ive been able to find is i have four yellow question marks under Other devices in device manager. 3 are 'Base system device' and one is 'SM Bus controller'. but i believe they were there before the problem started. ik havnt been able to link these with any uninstalled drivers yet.

Thanks again guys.

[Macboatmaster]

The SM BUS Controller and probably the Base System Devices are the chipset driver on your system

Go to either the motherboard site or the manufacturers site if it is a branded computer ie a Dell, HP etc

and download and install the chipset drivers.

See if that changes the other devices in device manager.

Here is an example of what I mean
http://www.intel.com...b/cs-013541.htm

CAUTION DO NOT user this one it is only an example


If you need help either post the make and FULL model if branded or go start and in run on xp or search on vista/7
type
msinfo32
on the window that opens click edit, click select all and then click edit and click copy
paste the results please to your reply


PLEASE NOTE I have amended Puppy instructions, still the same but a better guide

[ying423]

Hi - i updated some of the drivers in the dell website, id been wondering about those question marks for a while but didnt know they were for chipset drivers. that solved that issue, but i think ive hit a wall with the iomega. Since updating drivers it now gives me a message "the device has malfunctioned and cannot be recognized" message. so i think my two options are to get the adapter to connect the disk - im in thailand but i believe its still possible to buy them here, and to run Puppy when i have a new external hard drive.
thanks again and if you can think of anything else please let me know.

[Macboatmaster]

Well at least you have the other errors in device manager sorted out.
Many aspects would not work properly with those errors.

I do not unfortunately have any suggestions for the present external drive.

Good luck and please do let us know how it goes.

With that report I do not think Puppy will assist either but there is nothing lost by trying it

[Kemasa]

Depending on the drive and your system, you might be able to directly connect it to your computer. Once you open it, you can see the type of drive (IDE, SATA, etc.) and then decide if you want to get an external case for it.

[Macboatmaster]

ying423

How did you progress. Hope it went well, please do let us know.