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General discussion

External Hard Drive Dilemma

Apr 22, 2006 3:49AM PDT

Today, I rebooted my PC (Windows XP Home SP2)as I do on many occasions, and my external hard drive (a lacie 160GB USB2) suddenly appeared in My Computer as "Local Drive". I have not done anything special to the computer than would cause it, havent formatted anything.

When I try and access the drive, it tells me that the drive isnt formated >.<. In Disk management the HDD shows up as healthy, but with no file system.

Any ideas? I havent deleted anythign, formatted anything.

Discussion is locked

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Different drive - Same problem
Apr 26, 2006 6:30AM PDT

I have a different drive, but the same problem. I bought a hdd and enclosure and put it together myself. I had a hard time getting it formatted. I used it successfully for the past few days on USB. I always unplugged it to shutdown and start up or shut it off. I switched to Firewire today, and decided to try a shutdown, and lost everything. When I switch back to USB it shows nothing. Is this an XP problem?? Thanks.

Shane

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Might try removing the drive from the enclosure and
Apr 26, 2006 1:17PM PDT

connecting it as an internal.

Let us know.

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I read somewhere in this forum about
May 16, 2006 10:56AM PDT

using the command chkdsk /f to check the disk, and this will fix the problem on USB disks. I havn't had any luck with the FireWire. I have fixed a USB disk with this trick. I think you need the disk drive letter in there somewhere. Try: chkdsk E: /f I think that will fix it.

Shane