My Book 1TB Not Recognized on WinXP?

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

Ok you guys are my last resort

below is copies of posts I made on PC help forums before I found you guys !

so here goes

I’m using a 1TB Western Digital external HDD
but for some strange reason I cant access it anymore ?
It’s only the last few days this problem has started
I’m using Win XP and the G drive HD icon isn’t showing in “My Computer”

Iv’e tried renaming the drive in device manager etc
searched youtube and google for help but to no avail
getting all kinds of help pages but nothing which solves this particular problem

I can load it onto my laptop No problems (the disc is fine)
(tested with seatools)

this is a screenshot (I’m using the USB safe remove software)

but yet the the screenshot belows clearly shows the external HDD is showing in devise manager ?

All Greyed out entries below has been uninstalled

I have uninstalled all greyed out entries above and Rebooted
but it’s still a no go …what the **bleep** is going on here I wonder ? :blink:

I have even tried re-naming the drive letter as below  !

Oh dear… Posted Image

Posted Image

Can Anyone help me here before I go totally insane and smash the drive to bits with a hammer !

Thanks

2

Obviously the physical drive is being detected correctly. The partition table in sector 0 also appears to be intact.

The error message is suggesting that the root directory is inaccessible or non-existent.

Could we see the partition table and boot sector with Microsoft’s Sector Inspector?
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/SecInspect.zip

Extract the above archive to the one folder and execute the SIrun.bat file. The procedure will generate a report file named SIout.txt.

1 Like
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Here is the txt file as requested

http://www.easy-share.com/1913677092/SIout.txt

Thanks in advance

4

Just a suggestion… Not an easy fix.

Why don’t you reinstall XP, after backing up your important stuff? Or roll back to the date that Windows XP was reorganizing you drive using restore utility?

BTW, GUI Customization is nice but sometimes it might have something to do with your issue. Especially with hacked explorer.exe… Sorry, if I brake your bubble.

Mabikay – SLK

Note: Click the Kudos star to say thank you for helpful posts. And be sure to come back to click the ‘Accept as Solution’ button for the post that solved your issue.

5

Looks like you have run the utility on C:\ Drive and shows NTFS with 160GB partition…

Or …am  I missing something?

Mabikay - SLK

6

“Reinstall XP” ?

just for the sake of an external hard drive  ? :neutral_face:

Thanks for your suggestion but no that seems a lttle to drastic for me !

And yes I have already rolled back XP with system restore but to no avail

Could you Please explain what you mean by  “GUI Customization” ?

are you referring to me using the program “Usb Safe Remove” ?

also “hacked explorer exe” what do you mean ?

Thanks in advance

7

"Looks like you have run the utility on C:\ Drive and shows NTFS with 160GB partition…

Or …am  I missing something?"

Erm…

No I can safely say I have not run any partition utility ?

160GB partition ?

I definately haven’t made any partitions

Thats all I know is this drive was loading in perfect woking order until a few days ago

(still is on my Win 7 laptop)

So are you saying Reinstall of  WinXP is the only solution ?

Thanks for trying to help and advise me

8

GUI or Graphical User Interface is what you see and interact on any Windows PC. What I see on your post is not default Microsoft given Theme or MS genuine downloaded theme (I think I have seen all of them). Skinning Windows is fun but in to a certain extent. If you use a Windows transformation pack to transform Windows GUI, component in the pack overwrite/replace system files with hacked versions to make your system looks different. These files are called patched system files. Often they do not behave the way the original files behave and create unexpected results.

If you have done just skinning on your GUI, you don’t need to worry about it.

About 160GB Partition: I was referring to your hyperlinked txt file. I have downloaded your file and I noticed that you had run that utility (fzabkar’s) on your C:\ drive. What he would have wanted is to run on it on your external drive. To be honest, I don’t know how to do that. Better to contact fzabkar for that. My question was that the info available on uploaded TXT file was referring to a disk with NTFS partition while your uploaded images show FAT32 partition.

Partition is the name used in computer terminology to make disk drive available for formatting. You cannot format a drive without creating a partition first. All operational hard disk drives have partitions – at least one.

Finally, reinstalling windows is not a big deal for me. Besides, I always keep a drive (not disk) image in an unpowered external drive. I keep it unpowered, as place I live is subject to lightning discharge and power fluctuations. Secondly, I do not keep all my ■■■■ inside C: drive; so my C: drive image is smaller. And I don’t use Smartware!!! :smileyvery-happy:

P.S. I have noticed you have done lots of uninstallations; Registry must be a mess!!

I hope this clears few things that I mentioned on my previous replies.

Mabikay – SLK

Note: Click the Kudos star to say thank you for helpful posts. And be sure to come back to click the ‘Accept as Solution’ button for the post that solved your issue.

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Hi there Mabkay and Thank You for your help I appreciate it :wink:

1st off the GUI you refer to is in fact from Stardock / WinCustomize for WinXP

now how that can effect an ex HDD I really cant see it myself, and would have thought it most surely unlikely ?

but ok I’ll take that into consideration :wink:

2ndly

“quote”

What he would have wanted is to run on it on your external drive.

Yes I was thinkin that but as we all know at the moment I cannot access the HDD on  my C:  WinXP

3rdly

Reinstalling XP may not be a “big deal” for you but come off it Mabkay isn’t that a really drastic solution

for what is quite clearly  a Bios or Registry entry problem which oughta be repairable by someone who knows how ?

can you honestly see probably millions of  WinXp users reformating their computers

all for the sake of getting an ex-HDD to work ?

4thly

My Registry ???

On a daily basis I run

Registry Clean Expert

Ace Utilities

Tune- Up (1 click maintainence)

CCleaner (registry clean)

Error Repair Pro

Your Uninstaller Pro 2011

So If my Registry is “a mess” after running that lot above on a daily basis well then I give up !

Again Mabkay Thank You for trying to help me :wink:

My quest continues :frowning:

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I know you cannot run that utility on your XP PC. But You could have run it on WIn 7 to test subjected drive as you have said, it working on Win7 before…

Since you’re running SIX different utilities cleen you system on daily basis, it must be in tip-top condition.

FYI, I don’t use any of those utilities even on yearly basis.

There are so many bright guys in this forum  - lets see what they think of your issue - It might help me to learn something new.

I rest my case here!

Good Luck.

Mabikay - SLK

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I only use CCleaner about once a week. Some of the registry cleaners/optimizers end up causing problems that are hard to pin point. You could try a repair install. Probably a slipstreamed disk would work best.

Joe

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Joe you’re spot-on! :smiley: (We need more Smileys here with more expressions)

“Some of the registry cleaners/optimizers end up causing problems that are hard to pin point.”

Mabikay - SLK

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13

Well I just wanna say Thank you guys for trying to help Me (respect)

But I have actually found the fix for this particular problem elsewhere

and so for all you other users Not to have to go through the heartache

and one Huge headache I have had to endure these last few days

here’s a link to the fix right here

http://www.techspot.com/vb/post888848-34.html

Cheers and good Luck !

T

:wink:

14

Thank you for sharing! -:smiley:

Mabikay - SLK