USB Hard Drive Problem - Help needed please

[Plastique]

I have a 1TB WD USB Hard drive, and was storing some files to it earlier, when all of a sudden it started saying that to use the drive I'd have to format it?!?!

My laptop now won't recongise that there is anything on the drive, even though I was in the drive moving stuff about and going through the data in order to prepare a separate back up!

Tried using Recuva, but it says that location is not found, even though the little light is flickering!!!

Any one got any ideas, because this stores alot of personal (including my porn stash) and work info that I need to access.

Cheers (and a Merry Christmas to all)

 

[siffert]

I reckon that this happened to me once and I disconnected and reconnected the drive. if you haven't done that you could try it. Other than that I aint got a scooby. I work with spanners and hammers you see.
Have you tried a hammer perchance?

 

[knowone]

It would help to know if your 1TB is plug & play or has some utility/diagnostic software, also how new is the laptop and which OS.
Do you have another computer or a friend's (even library) computer that it can be plugged into? If it comes up the problem most likely is your laptop, if not the 1TB.
I would reboot the laptop (without the !TB plugged in) a couple of times, run any diagnostic & antivirus software.

(Assuming Windows) how recently have you updated? The two times I've had serious problems with my Win7 laptop was just after updates, things didn't work right for two days, no matter what I did. Then worked fine like nothing happened! I have friends high up in compter companies that say Microsoft will NEVER admit their screw ups.

 

[JasonCook78]

You can always try calling the maker of the hard drive for details on how to fix it.

 

[Plastique]

Hardrive is plug n play (USB 2.0)

6 month old laptop running Windows 7 Home.

Windows updated 2 days ago, and Harddrive worked fine yesterday afternoon, then yesterday evening the problem started. Tried rebooting with and without the hard drive. Tried chkdsk (but that doesn't seem to do anything at all, just brings up a black DOS type screen with flashing cursor). Antivirus hasn't identified the drive, so won't scan.

I'm not bothered about my porn stash (not the first time I lost a shit load of stuf from a removeable drive - funnily enough another Western Digital drive) but I am worried about my writings, notes and personal docs (the work stuff can be re done). I hoped that Recuva would allow me to retrieve the files and then move them to my laptop, but that program only seems to undelete previously deleted items.

Will have to try and smuggle the drive into work and test it there, but I'm curious as to why it was working one minute and then stop the next

 

[knowone]

Any update to your problem?

 

[Mr Dragon]

take it t\o a pc store

 

[squallumz]

piss on it. i got 4 HDs next to me that took a shit.

 

[itcouldbeme]

Remove it from the caddy, and hook it up straight...

I've seen caddies go bad, yet the drive was fine...

Also, your diag software may work if the drive is hooked up direct...

 

[Plastique]

Problem sorted - used "chkdsk E:/r" three times, and changed the power cord, and it's back to normal with only minimal data loss. Thankfully none of my writings were lost, but some of my porn bit the dust. Ah well, will just have to sift through what's left and maybe dump some anyway

Thanks for the more sensible suggestions.

Plaz