PC doesn't detect My Passport Elite

I have a 500 GB My Passport Elite that is no longer detected on my Windows XP PC.  I was messing around with Revo Uninstaller trying to get rid of a buggy program.  I selected the Evidence Remover tool on the Revo Uninstaller program and let it run through.  Next thing I knew I was getting error messages all over the place.  I rebooted as soon as possible, and now My Passport is no where to be found.  It doesn’t show up in My Computer, Disk Management, or Device Manager.  I have had mixed results when re-connecting it on different computers, different ports, and different cables.  At one point it would click repeatedly, at another it would beep repeatedly.   Now I can consistently hear it spin up, light comes on and it just sits there spinning but shows up nowhere.  I have no idea if there is any data on it at all anymore, Revo may have wiped it out completely, but I’d like to at least know before I chuck the thing.  There are some irreplaceable files that I’d like to get back if they still exist.  I realize that data recovery may be my only option, but I’d like to know if there is anything I could try first to at least “see” the drive.  Any help greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

Did you try system restore from before you ran Revo Uninstaller? If the drive doesn’t show in Disk Magagement recovery software probably won’t work. You can try downloading and burning a Linux Live CD and boot from that and see if you can access the drive. Are you haveing any other problems with the PC?

Joe

I have not tried a system restore.  When I do, should I leave the passport connected to the pc throughout the process?  I do not know how or where to find a “Linux Live CD” or how to use it to access the drive.  Other than the copy or Nero 11 I was trying to eradicate, everything else on my PC has been running fine.  I am on a fairly fresh windows install, formatted and re-installed windows a couple weeks ago.

I think I would leave the drive connected since it was connected whan you ran Revo. I see this Linux app recommended by some people on another forum http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html  Sometimes that will allow access to drives that Windows can’t access any more. You can also run checkdisk and see if that fixes anything. This also might  help if it’s a Windows problem sfc scannow  http://www.internetfixes.com/scannow_sfc_windows_xp/index.htm

Joe

System restore didn’t work, CHKDSK didn’t seem to detect the external drive at all.  Working on getting knoppix but I really have no idea what I’m doing with it.  Windows file protection is running now and I will update results when it completes.