External USB Hard Disk Won't Initialize in XP/7

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason Heydasch
  • Start date Start date
J

Jason Heydasch

I've had an external USB HD that's been working fine with XP/7/Vista until
the last day or so. These OSes still recognize the device in the Disk
Manager but it's not initialized. I can right-click on the disk and click
"initialize" but it does absolutely nothing. No error messages, no status
change, nothing. Anyone else encountered this? I did an initial search but
every post I came across was unresolved.

Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone else had encountered this previously or
had any recommendations of other actions I could possibly take.

Thanks!
 
Jason

Are any devices malfunctioning? Select Start, All Programs, Accessories,
System Tools, System Information. Open Components under System Summary
and click on Problem Devices. Is anything listed there?

Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click on
the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties,
Hardware,Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Jason Heydasch said:
I've had an external USB HD that's been working fine with XP/7/Vista until
the last day or so. These OSes still recognize the device in the Disk
Manager but it's not initialized. I can right-click on the disk and click
"initialize" but it does absolutely nothing. No error messages, no status
change, nothing. Anyone else encountered this? I did an initial search but
every post I came across was unresolved.

Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone else had encountered this previously
or had any recommendations of other actions I could possibly take.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

This can be a problem with the electonics in the case, with the cable, with
the port, or with the drive. If you open the drive case, it's got an
ordinary hard disk inside, and you can just remove that and attach it to
your system (for example, to the IDE chain or to an open SATA port) - of
course after powering down.

You should then be able to access it properly, which will reduce the number
of possible error locations - meaning that if you can read the drive with it
attached directly to your system, the drive isn't at fault, it's the case,
or the cable, or less likely, the port. There is a possibility that it's
the case's power supply.

HTH
-pk
 
Hey Gerry...

First off, thanks for the response... I appreciate it! There are two devices
listed in "Problem Devices" but, unfortunately, neither of them are related.
One is for a Cisco AnyConnect VPN thingy (that's the technical term) and the
other (which is coming up unknown) is, according to HP support forums, the
HP Quick Launch button manager.

Also, there are no items in device manager with a question mark (other than
that unknown device which is the same as above.)

I've had HDs die before but, typically, they don't show up at all in Disk
Management (at least not as consistently as this one does) which initially
led me to believe that it's still alive and kickin'.

Anyway, I appreciate your input and if you (or anyone else) can think of
something else I might be missing, let me know.

Thanks all!
 
Hey, Patrick... thanks for the suggestion! I might very well try and hook
the drive up directly. I had yet to do that. I'll attempt that over the
weekend and I'll be sure and post back if it works.
 
Jason Heydasch said:
Hey, Patrick... thanks for the suggestion! I might very well try and hook
the drive up directly. I had yet to do that. I'll attempt that over the
weekend and I'll be sure and post back if it works.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. The USB case and adapter electronics don't last forever;
I regularly use an adapter, this week one drive showed as "not formatted" on
the adapter, but when swapped into a case and plugged into *the same usb
port* it read with no problems. Clearly, the adapter is failing.
 
Jason

Are you using a USB hub or plugging directly into a USB port? Have you
tried plugging in directly to another USB port?

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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