[K4L89]

Hi all, names Cal.

Brand new to this site, so please bear with me.

 

I have a silicon power 1tb portable HD and it decided to go cactus on me. I have a lot of important data on there that I am scared to loose so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

My problem occurred when I 'Safely' removed the hard drive from my windows XP laptop and then continued to connect the hard drive to my windows 7 PC. To my horror my PC couldn't recognise the hard drive anymore. I tried it again in my laptop and still the same problem.

 

I asked a few different tech heads that I know and one suggested that I try and connect it to a mac. I did so, and then the drive was able to be recognised but with only half of its capacity to be viewed, without any of my data. I'm not too big on this sort of thing, but I feel one of the sectors aren't working properly or can't be recognised. I have tried many different kinds of backup software but no luck as of yet.

 

So a bit of info to help anyone source the problem, if at all possible:

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64bit

 

And a few screen shots:

 

This is a screen shot displaying that the PC recognises the hard drive to be 1TB

 

This is a screen shot displaying that the hard drive properties only display half of its capacity

 

Once again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance,

K4L

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Gday Cal, 

It could be a faulty cable or plug, try with another and connecting to the PC.

It could be a fault on the encloser.

With the encloser plugged into the PC and switched, > restart the computer and enter the BIOS, > look under storage to see if the drive is recognized.

If the unit is still under warranty, contact the supplier to seek a RMA, be sure to ask if they will recover your Data.

 

If out of warranty and not seen in the BIOS.   Dismantle the unit and take out the HDD,

> turn off the PC, unplug from the mains, > place the drive close to the case and connect it to a spare SATA port and power cable. \\, > power up the PC, > enter the BIOS, can you now see it?

 

Were the screenshots from the MAC?

[iammykyl]

Gday Cal, 

It could be a faulty cable or plug, try with another and connecting to the PC.

It could be a fault on the encloser.

With the encloser plugged into the PC and switched, > restart the computer and enter the BIOS, > look under storage to see if the drive is recognized.

If the unit is still under warranty, contact the supplier to seek a RMA, be sure to ask if they will recover your Data.

 

If out of warranty and not seen in the BIOS.   Dismantle the unit and take out the HDD,

> turn off the PC, unplug from the mains, > place the drive close to the case and connect it to a spare SATA port and power cable. \\, > power up the PC, > enter the BIOS, can you now see it?

 

Were the screenshots from the MAC?

[K4L89]

Gday iammykyl, thanks for the warm welcome!

 

Thanks heaps for your advice, I will try all those things (first have to find my receipt to see if it's under warranty still ha!)

 

I will keep you updated about the issue so other people with the same problem can find a solution here!

 

Thanks again,

K4L

 

Edit: Sorry there weren't any screenshots from the mac! Darn, didn't think of that.

Edited by K4L89, 20 April 2014 - 04:06 AM.

[K4L89]

Update:

So the hard drive shows up in BIOS, with the brand and version name.

And also it shows up in my computer with the others drives, however it's called local disc (Was previously named Silicon Power). So basically, I can still use it, but to only half of its potential...still none of my data available :-(

 

Could it possibly be a driver issue? I've tried scanning the net for driver updates through device manager but no luck.

 

I had a thought: Possibly when I removed the HD from my laptop, it may have corrupted the plug and play driver install? I feel stupid, but I might have a look on the makers website and see if I can install a manual driver through them. If not, i'm afraid I might have to locate my receipt and pray that it's still under warranty.

 

Cheers,

K4L

[iammykyl]

Gday.

Most important that you do not write to the drive as this is likely to cause further problems.

I don't think it is  a driver problem.   If you pulled the plug without going though the safely remove hardware steps, Data may be corrupted.

Lets see first if Attributes have been changed and the files are hidden.  Please do the following, with the external drive plugged in and running.

1.   Click on "Start" -->Run-->type cmd and click on OK.

2.   Copy this command, > attrib -h -r -s /s /d g:\*.*  (the last letter g is your external drive letter, if this is not the correct letter, replace it.)

3.   Right click in the command prompt window and paste.

NB. Don't forget to replace the letter g with your external hard drive letter.

4.   Press Enter.

 

Can you now see your files?

[K4L89]

Howdy,

I tried that (making sure that I corrected the drive letter) and still no luck

 

Can I provide any more screenshots to help the situation?

 

Cheers,

K4L

[iammykyl]

Gday.

It would be advisable to recover you Data before attempting a repair of the disk.

Please download and run Recuva, > http://www.piriform.com/recuva

[K4L89]

Good day all,

Thank you very much for introducing me to Recuva.

 

I searched all around the net for a backup program but had no luck, but Recuva has found most of, if not all of my files. I didn't think it was possible...

 

You have solved my problem...I mean the hard drive still isn't working properly, but my main concern was my data.

 

Thanks again. I'm sure ill be able to get my hard drive replaced once I backup all my data. 

And sorry for my late response, it's been a hectic couple of weeks.

 

K4L89

[iammykyl]

Gday.

Your welcome, and delay not a problem.

Great you were able to recovery most of your Date.   

If you only did the quick scan?

Try using the advanced/in depth scan to see if there is more you can recover, depending on how many files there are, could run for 24 hours or more, just let it run, even though it may appear to be doing nothing.

 

Have you contacted the retailer for a RMA number.

 

On thing I noticed, the drive comes pre formatted with FAT32, so it is compatible with as many systems as possible.

Even with a new drive, for use on a Windows OS, I would format the drive with  NTFS.  

> http://www.myce.com/...-fat32-tests-2/

[K4L89]

Hey mate,

Yeah running the in-depth scan as we speak. I did it the other night, and it took around 8 hours, but unfortunately my backup was too large for any internal HD I have...bah.

I could have done individual areas such as pictures, movies and what not and spread them around each of my drives but I want to use the option to back up in its original state, see if it works. Saves me sorting through everything...which will take me weeks. 

 

Anyway, problem solved. I borrowed another external HD from a friend and should have it backed up tonight 

 

As for the RMA number, I haven't got around to doing that yet but as you mentioned I also thought that formatting the drive might bring it back to it's original state.

I will try the NTFS format after the back up is complete and let you know how I go. If that doesn't work, Ill definitely look into the RMA number

 

Cheers again for your knowledge,

Cal

[iammykyl]