Computer won't read External Hard drive

brennan1979

Hi everyone,

Having an incredibly frustrating problem at the moment with my external harddrive. It's a Seagate 750GB hard drive and I've had it for quite a while without any problems. Since Tuesday I can't access any files in the drive and I've been getting a windows delayed write failure message. I can still go in and all the folders are still there but when I double click on them they're empty.

When I go into the My Computer panel and click on the properties for the hard drive it still says there is 500gb of information on the drive. Connected it to friends laptop and same problem, won't let me access the files but the properties still say there is 500 GB of information in there.

I downloaded a file recovery programme called Active@Undelete but this won't let me access the F: Drive in the first place to recover the files as the software won't read the external harddrive.

This is incredibly frustrating and I'm afraid I will lose the data. Bought a new 1TB hard drive to transfer the data if I can access it in the first place.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

By the way tried this advice from a previous thread:

I work in a repair store so it all good!!
If it is still being detected by xp here is what we might do.
go to start-->run
type cmd and hit enter to bring up command screen
cd to the drive ie if the drive is j
type
j:
then type
chkdsk /r

I tried that but it just came up Cannot open volume for direct access.

flyingsnail

Download seagates diagnostics tool here and see if it can scan the drive for errors.

bonzodog2

Try a free data recovery program called Recuva, made by same people as CCleaner

brennan1979

flyingsnail wrote: »

Download seagates diagnostics tool here and see if it can scan the drive for errors.

Thanks for the info. Downloaded the tool and went through the diagnostic but it failed te short generic and long generic tests.

Will try the software Bonzodog was recommending.

Mr McBoatface

I had a similar problem years back, some how my user profile lost all read write access to an internal drive. I solved it by restarting the PC in safe mode , logged in as administration and I checked the advanced properties on the hardrives folder and set it so all user had full access. I can't remember the full process it was some time ago but it was easy enough to do. Try re-running the diagnostics in safe mode while logged in as admin, if it's still failing check the cache is enable . Windows delayed write failure message can be caused by the cache being disable on the drive . http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174 . If it is disabled try enabling it as per the link rerun and the test.

Lastly the drive may be fine but the USB connection cable or USB controller in the drive enclosure may be damaged. The drive inside the encloser is more than likely a standard sata drive. If you're willing to break your warranty (not recommend) you could try removing the drive and attaching it directly to your pc as you would any internal sata drive. You may can recover you files this way. This should be the last option and you should consider a brining the drive to a professional first .

Your drive should still be covered by warranty , if the retailers warranty period has expired the manufacturers warranty can be checked here " http://www.rexo.co.uk/warranty.php " they will also replace the drive should it still be covered by manufacturers warranty. It may be of little comfort but at least you'll have replacement drive.

In future you should have important data backup on the second drive that's not in active use , it's a lesson I've learned the hard-way hopefully you can retrieve your data.

Hope this helps.

brennan1979

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Try a free data recovery program called Recuva, made by same people as CCleaner

Just tried Recuva and asked it to recover video files (to start with) on the F: Drive.

It just came up:

The process cannot access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file.

Switched to Advanced Mode and it came up:

The system cannot find the file specified.

brennan1979

jobyrne30 wrote: »

I had a similar problem years back, some how my user profile lost all read write access to an internal drive. I solved it by restarting the PC in safe mode , logged in as administration and I checked the advanced properties on the hardrives folder and set it so all user had full access. I can't remember the full process it was some time ago but it was easy enough to do. Try re-running the diagnostics in safe mode while logged in as admin, if it's still failing check the cache is enable . Windows delayed write failure message can be caused by the cache being disable on the drive . http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174 . If it is disabled try enabling it as per the link rerun and the test.

Lastly the drive may be fine but the USB connection cable or USB controller in the drive enclosure may be damaged. The drive inside the encloser is more than likely a standard sata drive. If you're willing to break your warranty (not recommend) you could try removing the drive and attaching it directly to your pc as you would any internal sata drive. You may can recover you files this way. This should be the last option and you should consider a brining the drive to a professional first .

Your drive should still be covered by warranty , if the retailers warranty period has expired the manufacturers warranty can be checked here " http://www.rexo.co.uk/warranty.php " they will also replace the drive should it still be covered by manufacturers warranty. It may be of little comfort but at least you'll have replacement drive.

In future you should have important data backup on the second drive that's not in active use , it's a lesson I've learned the hard-way hopefully you can retrieve your data.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info Jo. Going to have a bit of dinner and will try it in a little while. By the way thank you very much to everybody for their help. Much appreciated. Hopefully it works out!!!