Member Avatar for theroadrunner

Hi,

I've got a removable hard drive I loaded at of my stuff onto. And after plugging it into my TV via the usb connection to watch a film from it (which worked briefly) Then after plugging it into my computer and I seem to remember at first I could open it, but I think it ran slowly/screwed up.

...And now it either isn't recognized or shows up, when I left it trying to open the drive (I double clicked H drive) It took like 10 minutes and then gave the following error:

[IMG]http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/9854/erroronhdrivesu2.th.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://img252.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif[/IMG]

H is not accesible

The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.

It's the H drive as shown in the pic, any ideas I can try to get it to work would be greatly appreciated. But I need the files on the drive, so blanking it is off the menu.

Thanks,
Tom

  • 2 Contributors
  • 1 Reply
  • 183 Views
  • 1 Day Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by Chaky
Member Avatar for Chaky

Looks like your external HD is either broken or the partition on is corrupt. Either way there's practically no chance of retrieving files from it, unless you pay professionals $$$.
There are tools (free or trial) that MIGHT recover your partition (and files on it), but giving that the drive is USB drive, lots of those tools won't be able to handle it properly (or at all).

First, you need to determine what is damaged. Is it a partition or a master boot table.

Rightclick on my computer and select "manage". Click on "disk management" and see if the space on that disk is partitioned or unpartitioned. I'm assuming that you had a single partition on it. If it shows as partitioned, then it means that MBR is fine and the partition needs to be reformatted. Formatting can be done via explorer. Partition creation is done in the disk management window. If you don't want to retrieve those files (which could be really hard, complex and nerve-wrecking process) I suggest that you delete the partition, make a new one and format it in NTFS. If there is no option to format it in NTFS, here's how you enable it. It might be unreadable for your TV, though... if the drive works at all.

I prefer NTFS over FAT because it is more flexible regarding corruption.

Also, the source might be damaged USB cable or USB jack.

P.S.
I myself had a really strange and unpleasant experience with one USB drive. Whenever I used USB drive and if some networking activity occurred, like downloading some file, my XP would BSOD on me and become unbootable. XP registry would become corrupt beyond repair. It is still a mystery to me of what exactly caused it.
(installed XP 5 times in a single day.. sheesh).

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.