DalekSec Posted February 19, 2017 Posted February 19, 2017 I'm trying to fix a USB HDD that's not picking up a drive letter, i can see all the volumes in Disk Management but can't assign letters to them, the only option i have is 'Delete Partition' I've tried Disk part and it comes up saying there is a Disk but when i list volumes it's not there. Tried Various bits of software to no avail. Also tried using a different USB cable, i can't easily take the HDD out of the case without breaking it. As it's not mine i don't really want to do that either!
6Foot2 Posted February 19, 2017 Posted February 19, 2017 Is this problem at one station only? Does it happen with the USB HDD hooked up to another computer? Also: USBDLM? Link: USB Drive Letter Manager - USBDLM
DalekSec Posted February 19, 2017 Author Posted February 19, 2017 Tried it on 2 PCs and a Mac, Downloaded that software but unsure of how to use it. I've started it and seems to be running but not giving the drive a letter.
DalekSec Posted February 19, 2017 Author Posted February 19, 2017 Found the device on USB Device info but still no drive letter, have unplug and replugged
6Foot2 Posted February 19, 2017 Posted February 19, 2017 Tried it on 2 PCs and a Mac, Downloaded that software but unsure of how to use it. I've started it and seems to be running but not giving the drive a letter. I suggested other computers to try to eliminate the cause being your computer. I suggested USBDLM because I have seen a USB HDD not getting a drive letter that was resolved using USBDLM. Re USBDLM usage: Link 1: USBDLM Help Link 2: USBDLM Help [Configuration]
6Foot2 Posted February 19, 2017 Posted February 19, 2017 Found the device on USB Device info but still no drive letter, have unplug and replugged Can you assign a drive letter manually now in Disk Management?
DalekSec Posted February 19, 2017 Author Posted February 19, 2017 (edited) Can you assign a drive letter manually now in Disk Management? Nope only get the delete option still, edited the ini show would pick U: but still no luck Edit: Software is working fine as i've plugged in a USB Drive and it's mapped as U Edited February 19, 2017 by DalekSec
DalekSec Posted February 19, 2017 Author Posted February 19, 2017 Managed to find out the HDD was in RAW, found a bit of software called M3 Data Recovery. Scanned the disk and bam FILES EVERYWHERE.
DalekSec Posted February 19, 2017 Author Posted February 19, 2017 Hopefully will, my friends gone away with it and going to run the scan on his main Mac as it says it will take 4 hours. I've also pointed him in the way of cloud storage!
Arthur Posted February 20, 2017 Posted February 20, 2017 my friends gone away with it and going to run the scan on his main Mac as it says it will take 4 hours. Was it formatted as ExFAT by any chance? If they don't 'eject' the drive properly on their Mac I have noticed this filesystem corrupts really easily.
DalekSec Posted February 20, 2017 Author Posted February 20, 2017 Was it formatted as ExFAT by any chance? If they don't 'eject' the drive properly on their Mac I have noticed this filesystem corrupts really easily. It was RAW, took me awhile to figure that out (I don't know much about Macs!), But doing it on a Windows PC was quite hard to get anything out of it. Managed to do a Chkdsk on it once i got the GUID of the disk, which came up saying can't do it as it's in RAW. Then looked for RAW recovery type software and managed to get it. Background is his Dad sadly passed away in an accident last year and from what i could tell he had pictures on the HDD so was trying my best but was struggling for a few hours!
Arthur Posted February 20, 2017 Posted February 20, 2017 (edited) It was RAW Prior to it becoming RAW it would have most likely been HFS+, ExFAT, FAT32 or NTFS. At least you've managed to recover the files. Edited February 20, 2017 by Arthur
DalekSec Posted February 20, 2017 Author Posted February 20, 2017 Prior to it becoming RAW it would have most likely been HFS+, ExFAT, FAT32 or NTFS. At least you've managed to recover the files. Ah so you think he accidentally changed it to RAW? And yeah he's over the moon which is great And now has Cloud storage!!
bald_pig Posted February 20, 2017 Posted February 20, 2017 Ah so you think he accidentally changed it to RAW? And yeah he's over the moon which is great And now has Cloud storage!! RAW just indicates that Windows doesn't recognise the filesystem, typically because it's been corrupted (Eject your USB!)
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