Computer "forgets" external drive is there
 

Here's a new one for me:

I turn my external drive on (we'll call it "H:", 'cause, well, it's called "H:". So I turn it on, everything's fine, and then for no reason, I get a weird error message along the lines of "all the data in the file H: has been lost", and from then on, the drive is magically not there, as far as Windows is concerned.

Related to this is a situation where the hard drive is on and not recognized at all, and also a situation where I can turn the drive on, here the "boop" as Windows acknowledges that something has been turned on/added, but it never shows up under "my computer" or the device manager.

This has only happened a few times, and only with that H drive (I have 3 external drives). Unplugging and replugging the firewire seemed to fix it, but I just want to know if it's a symptom of something worse.

What's goin' on here?

I'm probably not gonna be much help, but I had that issue with my 250gb Simpletech, hooked up to Windows 2000. In fact, if I had two firewire connections at once (like a harddrive and a camera), I would get the big blue screen. I had to use USB 2.0 instead of the firewire, and that seemed to have worked. I think it's primarily an operating system problem. I'm not a techie person, but you might want to list what operating system you're using (Windows 2000, XP, etc), the type of firewire card, and the type of harddrive. Then check the harddrive or the firewire card manufacturer's website to see if there are any issues with the operating system.

My experience has been a bad cable.

Not saying this is your problem but replacing it might save yourself some hair-pullin' down the road.

It could be seeing your enclosure but not the drive inside. Like the guy above said, probably a cable. But a cable to the drive itself, not the cable connecting the enclosure to your computer. My guess is the power cable is not making a good connection to your drive inside of the enclosure. If your ribbon cable was halfway there, then you still should be getting some sign your drive is there, just lots of errors and stuff.

Try installing the drive as a normal drive, if you have a desktop. If it shows up, it should be okay nad I'd start concentrating on the connectors inside the enclosure. Has it ever worked?

Actually I was referring to the drive cable (IEEE1394). His problem seems to be intermittent and I'd go that route before opening the enclosure.

Failing that, and given the inexpensive external drive solutions out there right now I'd just throw the damned thing out and get on with life.

But that's just me.

Oh! Didn't notice he said windows saw it initially.

I had a problem like this and it turned out to be the enclosure. I put the hard drive in a new one and it's running like a champ.

Thanks guys.

First off, yes, I have had this drive for a while, and up 'til a week or a few days ago it was fine.

I'm loathe to mess with it too much 'cause it has a bunch of media on it I'm using for a project I'm still working on.

A note: it's actually an internal drive put into an enclosure I bought separately. I found it cheaper to do this way than to buy an "external drive", so I bought a hard drive and a firewire enclosure and put it together myself. If that makes a difference.

Oh yeah---

Windows XP home edition,
1 gig RAM
P4 2.8Ghz.
Pyro 1394 card (it was like 75 bucks--works fine with everything but the one drive, so far).

I can't recall the type of the drive itself, and it's listing the enclosure under the device manager, not the drive itself. Maybe a seagate? The enclosure's a "Vantech."

Whoever mentioned the computer recognizing the enclosure and not the drive--that makes sense, 'cause that would explain the "boop", yet nothin' after that.

You didn't mention this so I doubt this will be helpful but I have several USB 2.0 drives I use and once in a while, the hub they are all running through chokes and dies. All my drives simultaneously do the same thing. That's USB however but the hardware recognition issue is probably the same. Related to good old plug and pray?

When it happens, try to open your device manager and go to computer management (under XP anyway) and see what the condition/status of the drives are.

If it is seeing the enclosure but not the drive, you may see in device manager that it is listed but not actually see the drive in the drive management.

Sean

Thanks.

I think it has a USB in as well as firewire. Should I switch? Would it matter?

Maybe the firewire or USB drives are all conflicting with each other? Some people with multiple firewire drives/devices report problems with having them all on the same firewire controller/bus.

True, but it's worked in the past. The problem is recent.

It did it again. If I have the drive on and then reboot, with it still on, it likes to make the computer never ever ever reboot. I have to turn it off, and then boot up.


I hooked up the USB cable, took out the firewire. We'll see if that makes a difference.

Sounds like a Britney Spears follow up.

This problem doesn't per chance coincide with hooking something else up like a cam for capture does it? I've had instances where WinXP refuses to recognize external drives if the "play" button on the camcorder isn't pressed in the proper sequence before I capture. The only remedy was a cold boot.

Just a warning to you all: don't risk to lose all your video/data because of a semi-faulty piece of hardware.

That just happened to me. The same error message of the original poster...and i am right now in the loooong process of recovering all my video in that drive (show tomorrow, rehersal today...lots of panic here)

If something seems to be going to fail just replace it!! I wish I would have spent 50€ in a working enclosure now.

just my 2 cts

Paulo Figueiredo