WD External Harddisk

[namliam]

Hi folks,

Access is my thing and I know my way around, but hardware just sometimes you want to throw it out the window

I have an external harddisk from WD, it used to work but now doesnt.
I can see it in 'computer management' but it doesnt get a drive assigned by Vista.

I have tried assigning a drive myself, but get an error roughly translated:
"Drive assignment failed because Drive management has not been refreshed"

I have also tried the 2 suggested remedies:
1) Refresh it
2) Restart the computer.

I also tried removing the partition and reformating the external drive via said Drive management, but get simular errors and/or problems.

I am fresh out of ideas, any one have any new ones for me??

Thanks

 

[KenHigg]

For starters see if it works on other computers, this should cut the problem in half.

 

[Minkey]

Ken's suggestion would help but it certainly sounds at first glance like an HD issue. You can always try a chkdsk /f as long as it recognised by the DOS emulator which it might still be - go to Start > run and type x: (where x is the drive letter when it was working)

If it is recognised type chkdsk /f and see if it finds and fixes any errors.

Post back as it may be possible to recover it even if it not recognised by windows or DOS emulation or doesn't work on an other PC but I have to warn you if a disk is not kept in decent condition (defragmented regularly) it could fail to be recognised or it may simply fail completely.

One other question does the BIOS see it ? hit delete, F2, F5 or maybe even F8 just after boot - depends on your BIOS )

 

[namliam]

For starters see if it works on other computers, this should cut the problem in half.

(all) drives are defraged on a regular basis, including this one.

It works on my laptop, which is where I formatted it before. But I used the F which is taken on this computer by USB drive(s).
Since in desperation I removed the partition from this computer I am now reformating it (again) via my laptop which will take some time, but this time using V drive... not that it should matter but one never can tell it is windows afterall....

Dos didnt recognize it, but that also may have something to do with my deleting and (trying to) reformating the drive on this computer.

I will try the suggestions after the reformat and come back to you guys.

Greets from Amsterdam

 

[namliam]

I ended up getting more and more problems instead of finding solutions.
USB drives quit on me, windows started throwing errors. Despite my best efforts to try and install drivers or find missing DLLs (all from googling the net) I couldnt find the issue.

I re-installed Vista from scratch and now the drives are beeing recognized again, so I guess it was something driver, registry like thing but.... It remains a mistory

Offcourse now I am spending a week to get everything the way I like and install all software.... Guess I should backup more often

Thanks for the input!