problems with external hard drive

[choklate_007]

I was partitioning my external laptop 120 gb hdd, the partitioning software stopped responding and i had to cancell the process. since then my laptop is not recognising hdd. please advice.

my laptop is hp core 2 duo 1.6, 1 GB Ram, XP Media Centre,

 

[..:: Free Radical ::..]

It appears you may have restarted during partitioning.
Even though it appears not responding, low level things are running in the background.
happened to me too using partition magic.
Your MBR is a goner. Need to take aggressive measures.
I'll tell you more if you can state whether you want to recover data from the hard disk, restore the previous partitioning information or do you want to make it brand new spanking clean (i.e. will be happy to just get it recognized once more)
And in the meantime, try to grab a copy of Hiren's boot cd. Google it up.

 

[Eazy]

@Free Radical .... it seems from choklate's post that the BIOS is not showing the HDD ..... if the BIOS is not recognising the HDD then he is really stuck I had this happen during a bad format with a Hitachi HDD (I pressed the RESET button during the format process by mistake ) and from Hitachi's site I got a software (Drive Fitness Test) which asked if there was any Hitachi HDD not showing in a list and I said YES and it asked for a serial number of the HDD which I fed in and after a couple of minutes the HDD was fixed and was listed I think choklate will have to look for such a software from the HDD maker - BUT - as far as I know (and I hope I am wrong) if the HDD is connected via a USB cable then it will not get picked up by the HDD's software. The HDD has to be connected to a MoBo's HDD controller.

To fix major MBR problems I have run Ranish Partition Manager to erase corrupted MBRs.

 

[choklate_007]

i really wish to save the data as well as hdd. please advice accordingly

 

[..:: Free Radical ::..]

@eazy.
I already know that! He ain't necessarily stuck. MBRs can be restored.

Use Winternal's Disk Commander
(Hiren has it)
Highly recommended. (may take a couple of hours -> it has a reasonable chance of recovering your previous partitioning info and hence even your data)
I know...
Trust me on this
Messed around with my computer so many times.

 

[Eazy]

If the computer does not see the HDD (like choklate mentioned in his first post) how can any software see it ? Does Winternal's Disk Commander pick up HDDs which are not shown as present in the BIOS ? Man.... it will be great to have such a software - will get me out of a lot of tight corners W.D.C. will get the computer to recognise the HDD and restore the MBR .... RIGHT ??

A Question: If the BIOS sees the HDD will not a "fdisk /mbr" command help clean/restore the MBR ?

I have Hirens CD but have never run it.

 

[Kniwor]

Nothing can get the HDD working if BIOS does not show, NOTHING.

@choklate_007 u need to give more info, cant help u like this, what was the filesystem, OS, does BIOS show it, (If BIOS not showing then it's a plain hardware malfunction and try another casing) Is it being recognized in another computers etc.....

 

[choklate_007]

when i connect it on USB, it shows safely remove hardware. but on clicking my computer it does not shows there.

 

[Kniwor]

then it's just The partition table, u can fix it. Similar problem I had when I deleted my partition by mistake.

Right click on My computer --> Manage--> Disk Management. what does it show about this disk?
__________
also read this

*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?p=395752#post395752

 

[..:: Free Radical ::..]

Don't just assume that the hdd is not showing in the bios.
@eazy
fdisk /mbr clears the mbr info and al data is lost.
Disk commander however repairs the MBR i.e. can restore the partition info before the malfunction and all data before the event is restored.
works like a charm

 

[choklate_007]

hdd is shown as disk 1, but drive letter is not allocated, and nothing is working.
__________
in computer management, disk management the externall hdd is shown as disk 1, while on mobo hdd is shown as disk 0, but nothing else is working. however it is showing disk 1 as healthy (unknown partition).

 

[..:: Free Radical ::..]

Its recoverable. Already told you how to.

 

[Kniwor]

hdd is shown as disk 1, but drive letter is not allocated, and nothing is working.
__________
in computer management, disk management the externall hdd is shown as disk 1, while on mobo hdd is shown as disk 0, but nothing else is working. however it is showing disk 1 as healthy (unknown partition).

well then u just lost the partition table, u can just rebuild it it linux if u remember what it was, or use a windows based utility that can do t for u if u dont remember, but i dont know of any free utility that does it..... read the link I gave you.

 

[Eazy]

fdisk /mbr clears the mbr info and al data is lost.

NO ... "fdisk /mbr" has never destroyed data on my HDDs... never ever.... and I have run this command at least a hundred times - no exaggeration - I need to fix the mbr often after I run backup programs - you may ask why you I need to do this and the answer is that when a partition from one HDD is restored to a partition on another HDD (I am not talking of a full HDD restore) then both Acronis True Image as well as Ghost 10 have a nasty habit of sometimes corrupting the MBR on the new HDD. This is a known issue and I picked up from the Acronis forum this method of running fdisk /mbr after the MBR gets corrupted - I have been doing this for years. This works for me.
__________

Nothing can get the HDD working if BIOS does not show, NOTHING.

I mentioned in a post above that I lost a Hitachi HDD when I accidently pressed the reset button during a HDD format... it was no longer being seen by the BIOS .... Hitachi's "Drive Fitness Test" asked if there was any Hitachi HDD not showing in a list and when I said YES it asked for a serial number of the HDD which I fed in and after a couple of minutes of activity the HDD was fixed and was listed and is working fine till today.

 

[..:: Free Radical ::..]

dude,i am talking about really sick partition tables . i mean when you partition your drive again into something else which require moving your data to another partition. If something happens during the move operation or your drive gets locked out (issue with partition magic), the only good way to recover data is using disc commander.
The issue with ghost/acronis true image can be resolved easily with fdisk /mbr because it is only the partition table that is affected, not the data. Thats in a different league all together.