Slave drive no longer appears in windows explorer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phil Hellmuth
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Phil Hellmuth

I have a slave hard drive where I save various files. For the last few
days, I can no longer see the drive in Windows Explorer (nor anywhere
else). The drive was low on space, so it's possible I may have tried to
save a file that exceeded the available space. Is there anything I can
do to verify the drive is OK and to regain access to it?

Thanks in advance.
 
Phil said:
I have a slave hard drive where I save various files. For the last few
days, I can no longer see the drive in Windows Explorer (nor anywhere
else). The drive was low on space, so it's possible I may have tried to
save a file that exceeded the available space. Is there anything I can
do to verify the drive is OK and to regain access to it?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Does the BIOS "see" it while the computer is booting? If the system has
the display of such items disabled you will need to change the BIOS
settings to allow them to show. If the BIOS doesn't know it is there
then you might be the proud owner of a dead drive. Or it might be
something as simple as a loose cable. It might also be worthwhile to try
the drive on another computer if one is handy.
 
Phil Hellmuth said:
I have a slave hard drive where I save various files. For the last few
days, I can no longer see the drive in Windows Explorer (nor anywhere
else). The drive was low on space, so it's possible I may have tried to
save a file that exceeded the available space. Is there anything I can do
to verify the drive is OK and to regain access to it?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

You could try booting from a Knoppix cd (or similar Linux 'live' cd) and see
if the drive is visible from that. (is the drive formatted Fat32 or ntfs?).
 
John McGaw a écrit :
Does the BIOS "see" it while the computer is booting? If the system has
the display of such items disabled you will need to change the BIOS
settings to allow them to show. If the BIOS doesn't know it is there
then you might be the proud owner of a dead drive. Or it might be
something as simple as a loose cable. It might also be worthwhile to try
the drive on another computer if one is handy.
Click to expand...

I have a similar problem to Phil Hellmuth's one. But there are two
cases:
- in one case out of three the BIOS sees the drive and then the
computer hangs
- in the two cases out of three the BIOS does not see it and then the
computer works.
What do you you mean by "dead drive" - does it imply that data can't be
recovered?
 
John McGaw a écrit :




I have a similar problem to Phil Hellmuth's one. But there are two
cases:
- in one case out of three the BIOS sees the drive and then the
computer hangs
- in the two cases out of three the BIOS does not see it and then the
computer works.
What do you you mean by "dead drive" - does it imply that data can't be
recovered?
Click to expand...

If enough money and time are spent then almost any data can be recovered
but most people don't want to spend the cost of a new computer (or two)
to get back trivial things. On the other hand companies and governmental
agencies often are willing so the recovery companies stay in business.
In the case of a drive that sometimes starts properly and sometimes
doesn't I'd try it in a different system with a really hefty power
supply -- this will sometimes allow a drive to spin up properly. But if
it did start I'd copy everything that might be of possible use from it
and then destroy the old drive.

This sort of problem used to be more common in the days when drives took
massive spikes of current to spin them up. In fact big (5.25" full
height) SCSI drives were made with delay jumpers that could be set so
that every drive in the system started at a slightly different time
because more than a couple trying at the same time would bring
everything to a halt. Sometimes when newer-technology drives get feeble
and if they are connected to a weak PS the same thing can happen and the
drive doesn't spin up in time for the computer to recognize it.

Remember that it isn't a matter of _if_ your hard drive will fail -- it
is a matter of _when_. Even if the drive has been operating perfectly
for years there is no way to guarantee that it will be operating a
minute from now. Backups are the way to go if there is anything of value
on your drives.
 
John McGaw a écrit :
If enough money and time are spent then almost any data can be recovered
but most people don't want to spend the cost of a new computer (or two)
to get back trivial things. On the other hand companies and governmental
agencies often are willing so the recovery companies stay in business.
In the case of a drive that sometimes starts properly and sometimes
doesn't I'd try it in a different system with a really hefty power
supply -- this will sometimes allow a drive to spin up properly. But if
it did start I'd copy everything that might be of possible use from it
and then destroy the old drive.

This sort of problem used to be more common in the days when drives took
massive spikes of current to spin them up. In fact big (5.25" full
height) SCSI drives were made with delay jumpers that could be set so
that every drive in the system started at a slightly different time
because more than a couple trying at the same time would bring
everything to a halt. Sometimes when newer-technology drives get feeble
and if they are connected to a weak PS the same thing can happen and the
drive doesn't spin up in time for the computer to recognize it.

Remember that it isn't a matter of _if_ your hard drive will fail -- it
is a matter of _when_. Even if the drive has been operating perfectly
for years there is no way to guarantee that it will be operating a
minute from now. Backups are the way to go if there is anything of value
on your drives.
Click to expand...

I checked some firms that are specialized in recovering data from
physically damaged drives and I'm not surprised that only companies and
governmental agencies can afford to do that!
 
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