Maxtor External HDD Unallocated?

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bonoz

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I just installed a fresh copy of windows xp pro. The hard drive was perfectly fine on the last installation. But now it is not showing up on My Computer but it is under disk management but is being shown as 'unallocated' space all of 279 GB of it. So I am wondering what the problem is and how it could just go from fine to not fine in a matter of a new xp installation. Is it something with the drivers? should I try reinstalling xp and see if that helps?

Thanks
 
Unfortunately that's the only PC I have with a firewire port. My laptop has one but it's one of those new 'mini' firewire ports. I am already running a recovery software and recovering my files, just in case.
 
Unallocated Space means that the drive doesnt have a partition. So either the partition was lost or you have to update your chipset drivers.

If the partition was lost you will have to create a new one and then use Recovery Software to get your data back.

By any chance did you have the drive hooked up and on when you reinstalled XP?
 
Unallocated Space means that the drive doesnt have a partition. So either the partition was lost or you have to update your chipset drivers.

If the partition was lost you will have to create a new one and then use Recovery Software to get your data back.

By any chance did you have the drive hooked up and on when you reinstalled XP?

Yes, unfortunately, I did. And I am thinking that might be why. Regretting it.

What does that mean happened now?

Also, should I recover without creating a new partition or would I have better luck after I create a new partition and format?

It seems to me that the partition has been somehow 'changed' or 'deleted'.
 
I would try using a Ubuntu or any other Linux LiveCD and checking it that way. Perhaps it's some bug with drivers or with XP. This way you can get a confirmation that something is indeed wrong.
 
I would try using a Ubuntu or any other Linux LiveCD and checking it that way. Perhaps it's some bug with drivers or with XP. This way you can get a confirmation that something is indeed wrong.

I tried checking it out through Linux LiveCD and it would show up, however, when I clicked on it it said "could not mount the drive".

Also, what is the best recovery software out there?

and is there a firewire cable that goes from the big firewire plug to the new smaller ones?
 
IF Linux cant mount the drive i would think that the partition tables have been messed up pretty good. It is never a good idea to have a external drive powered on while installing Windows. As you see it can cause issues. Even just powering it off will save you from this.

Remake the partition and try Pandora Recovery.

Pandora File Recovery - Find and recover deleted files of any type - free.

The firewire issue should just be a converter cable. Check local stores.
 
I haven't run the firewire type but have reinstalled Windows while having the usb external drive here plugged and never lost anything. You more then likely deleted the original factory partition usually Fat32 off of the drive and need a tool like Active Undelete or another data recovery program to recover what you can before creating a new NTFS(advised for Windows users) partition.

Not all live Linux distros will see onto MS partitions on further note. The few like ubuntu more commonly seen used now and Knoppix live will see ready access if a partition is still there. Not being able to mount shows no partition found for mounting a logical drive.
 
There are many reasons an Ubuntu CD would not mount a drive. I've had it reject my drive simply because I disconnected it from Windows without shutting down or safely removing it. Try forcing a mount on it, see if it can mount it then.
 
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