dissapearing hard drive.

[timtheenchanter]

Hi all,
had given an 80Gb Hard drive for my computer, installed it with no problems, recognised in windows.
however I formatted the drive to get rid of the existing junk on it, and now its dissapeared!

It appears in the bios, and is detected with various hard drive tools for wiping, formatting etc. I have tried a low level format with a low level format tool, but it wont do it.

is there a way round it, or has the drive taken this moment to snuff it?

 

[timtheenchanter]

update, just looked in the devices manager, and its there as well, just not in windows.
Grrrrrr

 

[Barsteward]

update, just looked in the devices manager, and its there as well, just not in windows.
Grrrrrr

How did you format it?
Primary??

 

[Trazor]

If the drive/partition shows up in Device Manager and Disk management, but not in Windows Explorer, chances are that it is "only" the partition table that is missing or corrupt.

You can use a freeware program called TestDisk to repair the partition table and get access to your data again.
TestDisk will not change or delete any of your data.


Try this to repair the partition table:

Download the Windows version of TestDisk.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk


Unzip the downloaded file to your C: drive.
Open C:\testdisk-6.8\win > double click the "testdisk_win" icon.


The program runs in a command window and doesn't have to be installed.

Each of the steps (A, B, C etc) below corresponds to a new TestDisk window.
Use the keyboard's arrow keys to navigate.


A. At the first window, select “No Log” and press the <Enter> key.
B. Select which drive to analyse, choose “Proceed” and <Enter>.
C. Select partition type – Intel if it’s a PC then <Enter>.
D. Select “Analyse” then <Enter>. The drive/partition will be analysed.
E. Select “Proceed” at the next screen, then <Enter>.
F. Press “Y” if the partitions were created under Vista – “N” if not.
G. TestDisk should say “Structure OK”. Choose the partition to fix. Then press <Enter>.
H. Select “Write” and press <Enter>.
I. Press “Y”.
J. Press <Enter>.


Close TestDisk and reboot the computer.
The drive/partition should now be fixed and your data available again

 

[Igorian]

run the disk manager in Windows and see how if the drive appears and if so, how it is formatted.

 

[timtheenchanter]

got it,
for some reason the partition was also erased.
Have used fdisc to re-enstate the partition, its formatting as I type so fingers crossed!

 

[Spark123]

If you are using fdisk I take it that it will only format as FAT32?
As Igorian says, see how it is in disk management. Click start, run, type in compmgmt.msc and select disk management from the left hand side.

 

[homertimpson]

I had a similar scenario a few weeks past when I tried to install a 2nd hand disk to use to store backups on a friends machine.

Was seen everywhere except My Computer.
After Googling I came across a solution that worked for me.


Right click My Computer
Choose Manage
Under Storage, Choose Disk Management
Highlight the appropriate drive
Right click
Choose Make partition Active

After that I was able to see it in My Computer


Don't know if this is appropriate in your case - worth a look though.

Homer