Western Digital external HDD not showing up on My Computer after reinstall of xp

Hi

I recently bought a Western Digital 160GB hard drive (the model number is something like WD1600JB). This morning I backed up some files as I was going to re-install Windows XP on my laptop. Now, when I plug it in I get a "Safely Remove Hardware" message, but the drive does not appear in My Computer and I cannot access it. The device appears in Device Manager. I've tried uninstalling the driver and then re-connecting it; Windows appears to detect it (launches the 'Found New Hardware' popup) but it still does not appear. I tried this on another computer and the same problem happened.

I have also gone into computer management and tried to assign a drive letter to the disk but the disk doesnt appear in there.

I cant recall whether I removed the external disk before I reinstalled a fresh copy of windows. I am sure i didnt install anything for the OS onto the external disk only on the disk in the computer.

Has anyone experienced this problem and can you help?

Thanks

Have you tried it on another machine to point fault at disk or computer?

Sorry I forgot to mention I have tried it on another machine and the same problem happens on that one as well.

I think you did mention it and I just didn't see it!

Erm, something's upset it, might be worth trying a different hdd in the caddy to discount that but it's most likely a corrupt partition table I'd guess which you might be able to recover from.

Have a search on here for data recovery software and you should find some stuff that might be worth a go.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kmount

I think you did mention it and I just didn't see it!

Erm, something's upset it, might be worth trying a different hdd in the caddy to discount that but it's most likely a corrupt partition table I'd guess which you might be able to recover from.

Have a search on here for data recovery software and you should find some stuff that might be worth a go.

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Agree

two signs of hdd failure in a caddy

1. Ticking sound
2. if its not making a ticking sound it could be a heat issue on the hdd. If you already have data on it you may have send away for data retreval... cost between £80 - £250.

otherwise its a faulty usb inteface problem on the caddy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ranj

Hi

I recently bought a Western Digital 160GB hard drive (the model number is something like WD1600JB). This morning I backed up some files as I was going to re-install Windows XP on my laptop. Now, when I plug it in I get a "Safely Remove Hardware" message, but the drive does not appear in My Computer and I cannot access it. The device appears in Device Manager. I've tried uninstalling the driver and then re-connecting it; Windows appears to detect it (launches the 'Found New Hardware' popup) but it still does not appear. I tried this on another computer and the same problem happened.

I have also gone into computer management and tried to assign a drive letter to the disk but the disk doesnt appear in there.

I cant recall whether I removed the external disk before I reinstalled a fresh copy of windows. I am sure i didnt install anything for the OS onto the external disk only on the disk in the computer.

Has anyone experienced this problem and can you help?

Thanks

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1. Check in Disk Management to see if the drive appears but is given no drive letter
2. This been XP of course there could be driver missing issues.

Your best chance of recovering any data is by taking it out of the caddy and connecting it internally to a PC (opening the caddy will void any warranty) if the data is critical then you probably need a data recovery company. In my experience external drives are far more prone to failure in this way than internal drives and they always fail when doing something critical like restoring your PC.

In pre XP days I installed drivers but I've never needed to install any with XP its always detected external drives and loaded them without any problems without any input from me.

Have a look on the manufactures website most of them have free diag software to test the hdd which will tell you if its a drive failure (it will probably need to be tested out of the caddy)

Edit:
You have installed SP3 havent you?