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Question

Can't assign drive letter to external hard drive

Oct 16, 2015 1:05PM PDT

I installed Roxio GoBack in my Windows 7 OS computer, and a file was installed in my external hard drive during the process. My computer continued to run fine until I attempted to restart it. Windows would not start. I used System Repair, and nothing changed. I then used System Restore to remove Roxio GoBack from my computer. The computer was finally able to restart, however none of my computers can see the external drive anymore, and I am unable to assign a drive letter to it (the option is greyed out). I was able to copy my personal files from it with data recovery software, but I would like to be able to use my external hard drive again.

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
what type of external?
Oct 16, 2015 1:14PM PDT

a case you put a drive into yourself, or one of those WD "Books" or similar from other maker with a drive already in it? If the latter, did you reload the software which allows access to that drive after "going back"?

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Fantom Drive GreenDrive
Oct 16, 2015 1:36PM PDT

Thanks for your reply, James. It's a Fantom Drive GreenDrive. Their external hard drives don't come with software.

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Ok then, check...
Oct 16, 2015 2:00PM PDT

to be sure it has power. Any lights come on the device? The I/O on back is on? The adapter plugged in?

Your manual

Go into device manager and have it rescan for hardware. There may be a "bad device" entry placed in the registry that is causing windows now to ignore it. Rescan I think may overcome that or give it another chance to be recognized.

If all else fails,since it could be the case instead of the drive itself, see if it can be removed and placed inside the computer case itself, or set to the side of the open case with power and data cable attached and files accessed from it. If so, might as well permanently mount in the computer itself and consider the external case dead.

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Answer
If the file system is blown, you recover your files
Oct 16, 2015 1:16PM PDT

Then you can remove the partitions on the drive and start again.

-> Before all that did you see if Linux sees this drive?

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I recovered my files,
Oct 16, 2015 1:41PM PDT

but I've been trying to avoid "starting again", one reason being that I don't know how to do it. How would I remove the partitions? And regarding Linux- I didn't try Linux. Would that be done so that I could recover my files? If so, I already did that with a data recovery software name Active@ UNDELETE.

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The files are recovered, starting over takes a few minutes
Oct 16, 2015 1:47PM PDT
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Everything is OK now.
Oct 19, 2015 8:11PM PDT

Thank you James Denison, R. Proffitt, and Kees for taking the time to help me. I had already recovered my personal files with Active@ UNDELETE, so I went ahead and started over, and now my external hard drive is as good as new. And R. Proffitt was right- starting over doesn't take long at all. It took about two minutes.

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Before I try this I boot Linux to see the drive.
Oct 16, 2015 1:58PM PDT
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Answer
Re: can't see the external drive.
Oct 16, 2015 1:44PM PDT
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Re: can't see the external drive.
Oct 16, 2015 1:51PM PDT

Thanks for your reply, Kees. My case is #2- Windows Disc Management sees it, but Windows Explorer doesn't give it a drive letter.

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Re: Windows disc management
Oct 16, 2015 1:57PM PDT

And what does it tell about it. Something like "unallocated" or "unknown file system"? Both are very good reasons for Explorer to not see it.

Kees

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Is it formatted FAT32 or NTFS?
Oct 16, 2015 2:04PM PDT

If it's formatted with some other file system, then you can't access it in Windows Explorer.