Sony vaio vgn-fw21L running vista home premium SP2, 3gb ram.
Wd passport ultra 2TB product code 0830.
When I plug in the drive it appears to mount but it dose not show under computer drive listings.
If you look in Device Manager under disk you see displayed “WD passport 0830 usb device”
If you look at properties under Driver Details you see c:\windows\systen32\DRIVERS\disk.sys and partmgr.sys.
When I plug in a second external usb 1TB Maxtor drive and check the properties of that in device manager in it’s enters under disk they appear to be the same as the WD drive.
If you run Diskmgmt.msc using windows key+R both the usb external drives are seen but the Wd is shown as RAW and no drive letter is associated with it.
If you us “Safe Remove hardware” you see
“usb mass storage device”
“Wd passport 0830 device”
“Wd she’s device”
“Generic volume”
But no drive letter is associated.
The drive appears to remount cleanly as when you check the device manager all reference to the wd drive is not shown.
I have tried the drive in my wife’s windows 7 net book and all works ok the wd drive shows up ok.
With all the above in mind it would appears the wd drive is not corrupt.
Actions so far,
Uninstalled and allowed to reinstall usb controller, and usb host,
Cleared out all drivers showing for none present devices in device manager using device cleanup.
Can any one help.
Further up date
I connected wd via a powered usb hub…no difference still drive raw
Run data lifeguard…seen drive but quick test passed ok.
Still stuck!
Hi Gpojo,
Have you formated the drive? - sound like the computer see’s the drive but you havn’t allocated a drive letter or formated.
If the drive is RAW it is corrupt. See if this helps http://www.easeus.com/data-recovery/format-recovery-software/windows-7-raw-disk-recovery.htm If not thee is a last ditch method. Run the Command Prompt top convert a FAT32 disk to NTFS. This link explains the command http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214579
Joe
Hi Richspan
Just picked up mail been out and about. Thanks for quick reply.
Hi Joe_s
Just picked up mail been out and about. Thanks for quick reply.
Thanks for info currently now 02.30 GMT bit worse for ware will sleep then have a look at suggestions. Many thanks will post findings.
Hi
Thank you for your suggested actions to attempt to resolve my problem.
To prove the drive I connected it to a second laptop…all worked ok so localising the problem to the Laptop.
I have tried variouse things including deleting INFCACHE.1 then remounted usb devices…still seeing drive as raw. In Disk manager the drive shows up but with no drive letter. Just to see what would happen I gave the raw drive a letter…BINGO the drive changed to NTFS and showed up in file manager and I could access the drive. Still do not know why a drive letter was not allocated automatically as normal. Dismounted the drive rebooted laptop plugged drive back in ALL SHOWED UP OK AN WAS ACCESSABLE. Noted the drive letter I had manually allocated had been retained.
