External Hard Drive problem

Please help me someone!! I have an external hard drive - AcomData Hi-Speed USB 2.0 - that I've been using successfully for a year. A week ago we had a series of power outages while the computer was on, but for a few days everything was OK. I noticed that it was harder to get Secure HD Log-In to show up each time I restarted my computer and I haven't been able to access it now for several days which is what scares me. My external hard drive is my (G) drive. I have a Dell Dimension 2350/Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002/Service Pack 3.
A. I checked my Device Manager/USB Controllers System first thing and it shows that we had a USB Mass Storage Device ‘that cannot start (Code 10). I followed troubleshooting suggestions several times w/o any success in getting the HD partition to 'open' up.
B. I shut my computer off many times, moved the HD connection to another USB port and I still cannot access the HD.
C. I even did some driver updates, but I don't know if I'm using the right kind of update method or what drivers to update or add for this AcomData HD. I've emailed AcomData for help and haven't received an answer from them yet.
D. I was afraid that I might hurt my HD or loose any info that is stored in it, so I shut off my computer, unplugged the HD and decided to ask the experts for help.
What should I check for without harming my stored info? Will updating drivers w/o the HD connected do any good or does it have to be all plugged in again? Could the USB ports on my computer be bad?
Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do? I'm sorry for all the questions, but I am desperate.
I am not at all computer savvy, so please answer me back in simple terms. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

 

Power outages are not good that is for sure.

In the first instance what I would suggest is to try the external HDD on another pc and see whether the same thing happens.

 

Thank you risk_reversal. I appreciate you helping me.

I will try that for sure. I have another question you might answer for me.

Is there a way to download all the info on the AcomData HD onto another external hard drive device or am I getting ahead of myself? If so, is it simple or should I have a professional do that for me?

Thanks again.

 

If your device is not being recognised by your operating system then the easier avenue is not going to be open to you ie copy paste.

However, it is possible to clone the ext HDD and its contents in dos using a floppy drive to run the relevant prog. You can use Partition Magic (part of norton) which is not free or BiNG from terabytes unlimited and use the free version.

The learning curve on both of these progs is not too steep but it's not what I would call easy either

 

Thanks again risk_reversal. I'm not familiar with Partition Magic, but I'm willing to try anything to get the info off the AcomData HDD. I never knew exterior hard drives could be such a problem. Last year my computer crashed and I was told to get an exterior hard drive to help store my info in case it happened again, now I can't access the info on the HDD. This is worse since I have just about every bit of info and photos stored on that drive.
I appreciate your help very much.

 

No probs.

External HDD should not really cause any problems in the main. I build my pcs with 2 internal HDD and create a data partition on the first hdd and a databackup partition on the 2nd hdd. These partitions are all visible from my o/s. So when I go to My Computer, I see C:, D: & E.

Being ultra paranoid about data I recently made an external hdd ie instead of buying ready made, I bought an enclosure and a HDD and put it together.

I have been reading up about programs to sync and back up data and it has taken me the best part of 2 weeks to fathom it all out. However, one thing that I did run across that may be of help to you is System Restore if you are using XP. You should ensure that SR is turned off for your ext hdd.

You can confirm this also by going into the ext hdd and checking for a folder called System Volume Information which should be present (though hidden) but empty. SR with ext hdd can cause issues especially if you use the ext hdd on several pcs.

Good luck

 

have you tried it on another comp (as mentioned by r.r.) yet? can you see it in disk management? check out the link(s) i provided below (screenshots, etc). in the 1 link, i actually reference other links, might somewhat help you out. g/l, sos

right click "my computer" --> select "manage" --> a computer management box should open, then click "disk management".

or you can go to control panel --> click "administrative tools", comp management, then disk management.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=162112 <-- Hard Drive Disappeared

the above was from that thread. see if your external h/d manufacturer, has something similar. remember, you do not want to format your h/d!!

note: dlb, posted a few links in 1 of those thread (mine), but i couldn't figure them out. and, since the h/d didn't show up in "my computer", others wouldn't work (at least i couln't figure them out).

edit - doesn't mean to step on r.r.'s toes - *runs off*

 

Thank you sosaman...I appreciate you taking the time to help me.

I haven't been able to get the HDD to another place to try it on another computer. I only have one computer. Would the only safe place to check this out be at a computer repair shop?

When I still had the AcomData HDD plugged in, I did not see it in Disk Managment, but that could have been because I couldn't 'log in' and the partition wouldn't open up. [This might not make sense, but it's the only way I can describe it.] I wasn't getting the 'Secure HD Log-In' window to show up. I never checked to see if the (G) Drive showed up in Disk Management when I wasn't having any problems.

You probably know this...the AcomData HDD has a CD partition and a HD partition [from what I make of it] and I have to use a password each time I want to access the(G) drive. This never made any sense to me because I thought I should be able to just keep the HDD plugged into my computer and access it like I do the (C) drive.

The AcomData HDD was listed as 'FAT' and the (C) drive as NTSF. What's the difference?

I just remembered something. About 2 weeks ago we were attacked by the Antivirus 2008 and I found SpyHunter3 and removed the virus. Could SpyHunter have removed something from my computer and messed up the HDD? Or could the virus itself have damaged the HDD. It showed up in both my (C) and (G) drive but SpyHunter removed it. Then several power outages in a row followed and that's when I noticed the HDD was taking longer and longer each time to access and after last Thursday, I haven't been able to access it at all.

Could my power supply to the HDD be messed up or the USB ports?:confused

Sorry for my long explanations and little knowledge of computers. I appreciate everyone's help very much.

 

Sure, it could have messed up the external HDD mbrs / partition tables and with those corrupted the o/s would not be able to address the drive correctly.

With external hdd which contain valuable data probably the best practise is no to connect them until you need them, at least that is the methodology that I am going to employ.

Good Luck

 

Hello Im not sure if this helps but I did have a similar problem with mine I noticed you said you have tried a different usb plug but never notice you saying you have unplugged from power supply or the wall, Mine would not work unless I unplugged the wall plug and the usb plug then plug in wall plug first then the usb. this is when I found out how big of a piece of crap lacie products are if you have done this sorry for the waste of the thread.

 

as i mentioned in 1 of the threads that i linked to. i never leave my external h/d plugged in all the time, thru reboots, etc. i only plug it in (like a thumbdrive) when i am gonna use it. - sos

edit - i'm agreeing with r.r.