# [SOLVED] External hard drive disappeared



## mannoman (Apr 10, 2007)

Two months ago I moved my Documents from my C:\User\Documents to my external Maxtor 320g, F:\ etc.--The other day the F:\ drive disappeared. I ran TestDisk and I received a "Structure OK" response but I also got "No Partition found." The Drive was also listed as "Empty" (0 bytes). So I figured I was hosed. All my photos and music are on the drive.

I ran Rescue Data PC and it returned "Boot failure. Root image not found. As a last resort I hooked the external drive to my old (PIII, 1.1 USB) Thinkpad laptop. Lo and behold it assigned a drive letter and all my files are there. The drive is in perfect working order. 

I have a serious problem with my desktop but don't know what it is? As an aside, about 3 or 4 weeks ago I was getting a "Kernel Data In Page Error msg., every day, and I assumed it was the desktop hard drive. hat's why I moved data to F:\, but the error msg. went away. I guess I should have paid attention and explored further. Duh!

FYI - The PC is 6 months old, a HP m8000n Media Center w\2g ram - AMD dual core, 500 g internal HD

I am not a beginner but far from expert. Any thoughts, guys?


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## mannoman (Apr 10, 2007)

*Re: External hard drive disappeared*

Bump - the situation still exists, Disk management can see the drive and shows it as unallocated. The problem must be system related as the drive is easily read when connected to another PC. 

Suggestions welcome.

Nicholas.


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

*Re: External hard drive disappeared*

Hi,

Right click "My computer" > choose "Manage" > Disk Management.
If the drive is listed - right click it >
> Choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths" >
> Click "Change" and assign a new unused drive letter.

Have a look in Device manager. Any red/yellow "marks"?

Do other USB devices, for example memory sticks, work OK?

I have moved this thread to the "Motherboards, Bios & CPU" forum.


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## mannoman (Apr 10, 2007)

*Re: External hard drive disappeared*

Thanks Eneles. This is very strange. The drive was listed in Disk Management (when I first had the problem) as unallocated. It appeared my only solution was to intialize (and lose all data). That's when I decided to try it on my laptop. 

As I mentioned, it was readable via my laptop so, tonight I removed the HD from the laptop and reattached it to the desktop (in a different USB port). Much to my surprise it was recognized by the PC. Do USB ports go bad? Could this be a temporary reprieve? Stay tuned.


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## Deleted090308 (Jan 25, 2007)

*Re: External hard drive disappeared*

Good news. :smile:
USB plugs can be a little "wonky" - some times dirt on the metal connectors is enough to cause problems.
I wouldn't use the "bad" USB port - especially not for external drives or flash sticks.


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