External Hard Drive problem.

TheGuitarGuy

Solid State Member
Messages
8
Hi, I'm new here,, i searched for topics similar to mine but none seemed to be quite was i was looking for. My situation is this, I had a virus of some sort and had to use the system recovery cds that came with my pc to reload windows, I managed to not lose any data from my c drive. But after doing this, I reboot and now windows xp won't read my external hard drive, which up untill this point seemed to have nothing to do with the problem.

It reads it as a removable drive, but windows won't let me access it because it says its "not formatted", then asks me to format, which i can't because i have important data on there. I've looked into a lot of data recovery programs but they all seem to be aimed at more severe problems than mine. so the simple question is.. Is there any way to access this drive now without resorting to more drastic measures?
 
TheGuitarGuy said:
Hi, I'm new here,, i searched for topics similar to mine but none seemed to be quite was i was looking for. My situation is this, I had a virus of some sort and had to use the system recovery cds that came with my pc to reload windows, I managed to not lose any data from my c drive. But after doing this, I reboot and now windows xp won't read my external hard drive, which up untill this point seemed to have nothing to do with the problem.

It reads it as a removable drive, but windows won't let me access it because it says its "not formatted", then asks me to format, which i can't because i have important data on there. I've looked into a lot of data recovery programs but they all seem to be aimed at more severe problems than mine. so the simple question is.. Is there any way to access this drive now without resorting to more drastic measures?

(1st of all Welcome to Computer forums)

is it being recognized in bios (the extrnal hhd)? and if it is...are you booting up from this external hhd? or from an internal one?
 
Well, when you (if you do) boot from internal, dont have the external on. Only turn it on, when your loaded and onto the desktop.
 
And if that doesnt work, go to device manager, and find the external, then find drivers through that..
 
I've plugged it into 2 other computers with the same result. The file system is showing up as "raw" .. I went to the website for this drive and the only drivers available are for 98 and Me. I suppose windows doesn't need one.
 
alright...well listen to what arrizx and mr mixx said. boot it without the external hdd connected. if the OS is on there, then i'm not sure what to do. but if it;s not, boot up windows and then plug it in. i had the same problem with my usb flash drives
 
Back
Top Bottom