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Thread ID: 88299 2008-03-22 20:56:00 Portable Hard DRive not reconised by PCs taxboy4 (579) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
651670 2008-03-22 20:56:00 Hi, I have a portable hard drive I use to transfer data between my various pcs and as a backup for itunes.

Recently when I used it, I get the little pop up windowms telling me the pc recognises the new hardward but can't get a drive letter in Explorer - it won't show up in disk management either.

Any ideas please?:help:
taxboy4 (579)
651671 2008-03-22 21:10:00 Get into DOS and tell DOS chkdsk d: Or whatever your HD is.
If it has problems it will tell you.
Then it could want chkdsk d:/f this will tell dos to fix the problem the next time your machine loads. d
darroll (12090)
651672 2008-03-22 21:14:00 Get into DOS and tell DOS chkdsk d: Or whatever your HD is.
If it has problems it will tell you.
Then it could want chkdsk d:/f this will tell dos to fix the problem the next time your machine loads. d

If it can't get a drive letter, then surely it won't be able to be chkdsk'ed.
somebody (208)
651673 2008-03-22 23:19:00 You might have to "bite the bullet" an d format your HD. Say goo d by to your d ata. d darroll (12090)
651674 2008-03-23 01:42:00 Is the drive used mainly on a Mac? If so it may well be a different file system that Windows doesn't support. Otherwise, ignore the rest of this post.

Probably the easiest way to solve this would be to copy the contents of the drive on to your Mac. You could then format the drive as FAT32 (this will destroy all data on the drive). I use neither Windows nor Mac OSX so perhaps somebody else could summarise how to do this one one of these systems. Then you could copy the contents back on to the drive from the Mac and the drive would then be usable on all major operating systems.
TGoddard (7263)
651675 2008-03-23 02:14:00 Well I'd be checking whether the problem is the drive or the enclosure first.
Take the drive out and connect it up direct to your PC and see if you can access it.
pctek (84)
651676 2008-03-25 02:02:00 Try going into Admin tools, disk management & assign/force another drive letter
to the USB drive (say m:)

There is a nasty bug in Xp , that if the next available drive letter was
(say) f: & you had a f: network share, then the USB drive would not (allways ) jump to the next drive letter (g)

Ive just seen on a brand new Vista PC, plugging in a USB HD made the CDROM
dissapear (it wanted to use the CD drive letter)
sroby (11519)
651677 2008-03-25 04:57:00 I have this problem with my spare portable too. Is yours by any chance a 2.5" and the enclosure doesn't have an AC power option, and would Vista possibly be involved? sal (67)
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