OT Laptop and Exterior Drive Issues
IceDragonArt
Posts: 12,966
I have all of my daz stuff on an exterior drive (one for the laptop, one for the pc). I ran out of memory to store everything and this was a really good solution and was working very well. This weekend, for some reason, the laptop no longer *sees* exterior drive. It froze up for some reason this weekend and when I rebooted the reboot failed when I had the drive plugged in. If I plug the drive in when its already loaded, it doesn't see it, although the drive's light comes on it acts like its running. ( also plugged it into my pc, and it found it with no problem). When I disconnect the plug on the laptop, it will all of a sudden decide it sees it and want to format it. It doesn't need formatted its already formatted. If I shut down and try to restart with it plugged in, once I log on with my passwork it acts like its going to finish (i.e. load all the programs and icons etc) but it just hangs. If I don't plug it in, it loads normally. My laptop is about 6-7 years old (at least) but I really don't want (or can afford) another laptop that can run Studio. Any ideas that would allow me to continue to use the external drive on the laptop would be greatly appreciated. I don't know if the laptop is just dying, if its possible to replace the port, if I should try a different cord?
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First step is to check Device Manager. Click on Disk Drives, and a drop down list of drives connected to the computer should open. If your external drive is listed, then the problem is most likely driver related. If the drive isn't listed, then it's a hardware failure, either the port, cord, or drive itself.
Great thank you! I will have to check when I get home from work tomorrow as its still packed up (camping trip, just in case it rains. which, it did lol). I'm going to be very irritated if its a drive since its only about 6 month old.
I've run into this a couple of times on a Windows 8.1 laptop; the system thinks the device is already registered but not responding and won't let you connect it because it's already connected. The fix is to go into device manager, scroll down to the usb devices, expand any controllers (click the '+' sign) and then from the bottom to the top, one at a time, delete them. (right-click the device and select delete). You will be prompted to reboot to finish - select the reboot later option until the last one, and then allow the system to reboot. Plug the drive in at the start of the reboot (or after the reboot finishes).
Great I will try this. Mine is still Windows 7 but I'm willing to give it a shot. thank you!
Okay I don't have the option to delete, only to uninstall.... I'm a bit wary of uninstalling. Is that going to be the same thing as deleting? Under Universal Serial Bus Controllers correct?
In Device Manager it should be under disk drives. Click on the one that corresponds to your external drive to open the dialog; then uder the driver tap there should be an option to disable it. Be careful you ar doing this to your external drive and not to your internal drive
That's it - sorry, I was going from memory. I found out after the fact that the root cause for me was plugging the drive into a different USB port - and the fact that my Lenovo laptop does NOT shut down with the Windows 'shutdown' option, it ust goes into deep hibernation, so it wasn't rebooting clean at startup.
If she's getting what I got, the disk drive won't show; there will be an error in the event log from the USB drivers. Pain in the backside, as I have 9 USB hubs/devices I had to blow away. Windows automatically re-installs them at restart.
That could be. I was just going with what I saw for me desktop with wWindows 7 and a Western Digital external drive
I sometimes experience that USB drives dismount immediately after they have been mounted. Zentimo has an option for re-mounting them, that works for me.
http://zentimo.com/
Okay just to be clear, I go in to my Universal Serial Bus controllers and delete each one from the bottom up, then restart. They will automatically load back up. It looks like I have quite a few as well. I know I sound like I am repeating myself I just don't want to delete something that I shouldn't lol.
And thank you Taoz if the usb thing doesn't work I will check that out as well. And thanks everyone for the help.
That's what worked for me - had to do it several times over the period of a month or so.
You might check in Disk Management and make sure that it says that the drive is online. I've occassionally had one that gets recognized...you hear that clunk when you plug it in, but then it doesn't show up in my computer. Some times it is due to a conflict with another device. I just right click and choose the option to bring it online. Although that probably isn't your problem since I think you said it gets recognized sometimes but it wants you to format it.
Where is disk management located? I think it may be the actual drive because I just plugged it into my pc and its not working there either. Which makes me very very unhappy, I have a lot of information on that drive that I can't access now. I use this drive to put all of my daz stuff as well as all of my art files, textures, finished art etc. because the laptop doesn't have enough memory. This solved my problem nicely. However, its not supposed to stop working in less than 7 months...
I did order an new cord, just in case its some kind of an issue with. I figured I might as well try the $5 solution first.
Not sure what OS you are running, but in Windows 7:
right-click on My Computer desktop icon > Manage , then click on Storage > "Disk Management".
Thank you! I am actually running Windows 7 lol. I will say that Amazon has been really great, they will replace the drive as long as I pay shipping (I'm a Prime member, but I purchased this 7 months ago). I am going to wait til the cord comes tomorrow and check out the disk management thing. but I am really afraid that its drive itself as it does the same thing on my pc and my work pc. Its really strange because if I have it plugged in, windows will NOT load anything, it acts like its blocking the whole system.
I'm on Windows 10 now, so I can't verify for sure. But you should be able to right click on the start button and there should be an option to open Disk Management. You might have to click on Manage first...according to what I read on the internet. If I remember correctly, there was a way to get to it through the control panel too. It might be there on Windows 10 to, but it's hard to find if it is. I just right click on the start button.
When you plug it in, does it make a sound like it is connecting?
Also, is the drive making any sounds. The few drives that I had that have gone bad all made a sound when they were going bad. It might have been a tick tick or a scratchy sound.
One was my bootable drive. It made sounds and then would just restart the system for no apparent reason. The other one made sounds for a while, but I was able to back it up before it died. I figured the noise wasn't normal, so I started copying files.
Yes it does make that sound, and, the light comes on and you can hear it running. It seems there something wrong in the way its communicating with they system. It now shows up as the E drive, but it says there is nothing there. If I click on it never opens all the way and then I get an error message that says that windows explorer has stopped working. If I try and open anything else up while its plugged in, nothing happens. The second I unplug it, anything that I tried to open while plugged in, suddenly works and opens.
It could be the MBR on the external drive is messed up and windows explorer is locking up trying to read it.
If it is making a steady clicking noise, then most likely the drive is dead and the data is essentially lost (short of sending it out and spending amounts of money stupid big enough to make this hobby look cheap). It's generally called Click-death, and the only home remedies for it are more likely to finish killing the drive than to make it at all useable. Also, if it smells bad (like somoene that REALLY needs to take a shower bad) then it's definitely on it's way out.
If you plug it in and it spins up and acts normally, then it is most likely either a problem with the USB connector, or, as kaotkbliss said, the MBR (essentially the index/card catalog for the data on the drive) is hosed. If that's the case, the data might be recoverable, but it won't be a simple fix.
if it is the MBR, this might be a solution
http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/rebuild-mbr.htm
Well, it doesn't make a clicking noise (that I've noticed) It runs like it is working. I will give the rebuild a try if the new cord doesn't work...
Could be bad sectors, they can cause the system to lock up that way. You could try if the manufacturer has some diagnostic tools that can be run from a bootable CD or flash drive, depending on what's wrong it may be possible to diagnose it that way.
Thanks, I will look into that as well.