Femme Fatalities Message Board

I have an older IOMega External Hard Drive that was formatted and used on a Mac.
I, of course have a PC using Windows. (Doesn't everyone? (Ha!))

The "Device Management" indicates that the device is working properly.

The "Disk Management" does not assign a drive letter
with the result that the drive cannot be accessed at all ...

Cannot clear and reinitialize the drive - Cannot change the drive letter - nothing ...

Does anyone have any ideas about some software that will clear this up?

I've run so-called Windows Repair software that accomplished nothing.

I'll be charged upward of $40 from a "Help Site" who from what I could tell
knows less about this sort of thing than I do - which is virtually nothing.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Uncle Buck

Go to page two of this thread, and send a private message (PM) to member Jerry who has experience with this sort of thing. If it can be done I'm betting he'll know how.

There is another possible solution, but it may not be practical for you.

http://www.femmefatalities.com/phpBB3/v ... =16&t=3826

Keep smiling,

Al

P.S. Doesn't the HD-drive's manufacturer have a website with formatting info?

If there is data on the disk you want to keep, STOP. Reinitializing or formatting the disk will delete everything on it.

external disks are known to die, but in most of my expereince, its the USB/sata controller that is failing, not the disk. First thing to try is removing it from the enclosure. Carefully. Most of the time you have to destroy the enclosure to remove the disk. Connect the disk to a sata port (odds are the disk in the enclose is a sata disk) in your computer, then boot your computer. If you do not have a sata cable, they're cheap online. More advice is also available in the thread Algenon mentioned, specifically this post. http://www.femmefatalities.com/phpBB3/v ... =30#p48556

If that still fails with the disk connected to the board the disk is very likely dead. If BIOS sees the disk but the operating system cant, odds are there is some encryption going on and if this is the case that is a whole other can of stinky worms.

Finally, don't ever pay for help online from some site. Seems most of these paid "help" sites are just content mills and will probably give you the same advice.

uncle_buck wrote:
Does anyone have any ideas about some software that will clear this up?

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Uncle Buck

Maybe you just need this:https://www.partitionwizard.com/.

The free edition should do the trick.

Well guys, thanks for the tips, but I'm afraid takin things apart is a tad too "physical" for me. A DOS command here or there is one thing. My "expertise" is of the 'put the key in the ignition switch and turn to the right'. If it neither cranks nor starts when it turns over - I'm sunk.

Since I have one external drive that hums along nicely, I think that when warm weather comes, I'll make my way to Best Buy (if they're still in business?) and see what an new external drive looks like these days.

And yes, I think I know about as much as the individuals I've encountered at the 'pay-for-help' site - which is to say, Nothing.