Author Topic: <SOLVED, Sort Of> External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format  (Read 2613 times)

Offline joechimp

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Didn't know where to put this but here is where I am.

I have an 80GB external hard drive that I decided to use to store some larger files. It was formatted in Fat 32 and the files I need to store on it were larger than 4GB so I needed to re format it. I reformatted it to NTFS as the files were windows programs.

I went to manage disk partitions and re formatted it. Now it is not recognized by PCLOS or Windows.

What simple thing did I forget to do. I am sure I will feel stupid after someone tells me. That's ok though if if I fix it.

Thanks in advance for any help.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2012, 08:55:17 PM by joechimp »
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Offline Yankee

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #1 on: June 30, 2012, 07:37:50 PM »
Didn't know where to put this but here is where I am.

I have an 80GB external hard drive that I decided to use to store some larger files. It was formatted in Fat 32 and the files I need to store on it were larger than 4GB so I needed to re format it. I reformatted it to NTFS as the files were windows programs.

I went to manage disk partitions and re formatted it. Now it is not recognized by PCLOS or Windows.

What simple thing did I forget to do. I am sure I will feel stupid after someone tells me. That's ok though if if I fix it.

Thanks in advance for any help.

My LXDE  has an NTFS  configuration tool in the menu,
but I've never had to use it.   Might help.   Partitions I've
formatted with NTFS were seen right away.   Never ask
for root permissions either going back and forth.

Maybe need to reboot between deleting the FAT 32 and going to
NTFS, who knows.   Fussy old Linux maybe.    What does Testdisk
say is where I'd go then.
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Offline joechimp

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2012, 07:40:09 PM »
Thank you for your response.

I am not able to test anything because there is nothing that recognizes the drive exists.
There is a 5th dimension,beyond that which is known to man.It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity,between science& superstition,& it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.This is the dimension of imagination.It is an area which we call PCLINUXOS!

Offline Yankee

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #3 on: June 30, 2012, 07:44:40 PM »
Thank you for your response.

I am not able to test anything because there is nothing that recognizes the drive exists.

Gold plated cables are checked ?  Perhaps format it back to FAT32 once
and try again.   
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Online Rudge

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #4 on: June 30, 2012, 07:50:18 PM »
Thank you for your response.

I am not able to test anything because there is nothing that recognizes the drive exists.

Gold plated cables are checked ?  Perhaps format it back to FAT32 once
and try again.  

How is he to format it if he can't see it?   ???


Joe there may be a way to mount it manually.

« Last Edit: June 30, 2012, 07:53:43 PM by Rudge »


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Offline djohnston

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2012, 07:50:38 PM »
Is it connected via USB? Open a terminal.

su
fdisk -l


If you don't see it listed, the USB routines aren't doing their job. You should see the device, even if it's not formatted.

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Offline Yankee

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #6 on: June 30, 2012, 07:54:48 PM »
go to root in terminal and run

hald    enter

otherwise bad cables, I'd think

replace the drive in the usb slot it should
show up

or reboot with drive securely replugged in
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Online Rudge

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #7 on: June 30, 2012, 07:58:39 PM »
go to root in terminal and run

hald    enter

otherwise bad cables, I'd think

replace the drive in the usb slot it should
show up

or reboot with drive securely replugged in

You can check to see if "hald" is running by typing " ps -ef | grep hald "

Just because "hald" is running doesn't mean bad cables.


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Offline Yankee

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #8 on: June 30, 2012, 08:04:54 PM »
my hald pops out sometimes

when I run hald as root...

then I can mount things again.

Just one thing that might help.

Don't know how Windows or Testdisk can't see it.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2012, 08:14:10 PM by Ferdes Fides »
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Offline joechimp

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #9 on: June 30, 2012, 08:16:47 PM »
changed cable first. No difference.

The drive was working fine before I did the format. So I assume I did something wrong. It should have been a straightforward deal.

I will do the rest of the suggestions now.
There is a 5th dimension,beyond that which is known to man.It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity,between science& superstition,& it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.This is the dimension of imagination.It is an area which we call PCLINUXOS!

Offline joechimp

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #10 on: June 30, 2012, 08:33:08 PM »
still no where to be found. I just wish I could figure what I did wrong. It had to be something I did considering it worked as it should before I did the format.
There is a 5th dimension,beyond that which is known to man.It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity,between science& superstition,& it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.This is the dimension of imagination.It is an area which we call PCLINUXOS!

Offline Yankee

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #11 on: June 30, 2012, 08:39:39 PM »
Must be an old drive.   No electrical connection to the computer at all, apparently,
based on what you're saying.    Try it again tomorrow.
ASUS EeePc 900HA netbook  1.6 Ghz Atom CPU  1GB RAM
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Offline joechimp

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #12 on: June 30, 2012, 08:46:13 PM »
tomorrow might be the key right now. Kind of tired and frustrated. Maybe something will come to me by then.
There is a 5th dimension,beyond that which is known to man.It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity,between science& superstition,& it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.This is the dimension of imagination.It is an area which we call PCLINUXOS!

Offline joechimp

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Re: External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #13 on: June 30, 2012, 08:54:31 PM »
Well, stuff happens. I was tired and before I shut down, I gave the external drive a dope slap and there it was popped up on the screen.

I am going to mark this solved, but it really isn't because I have no clue what happened.

The cable was checked. The power cord checked, so maybe the drive was stuck. I just don't know.

Thank you all that tried to help me.

Now I need to dope slap myself.  ::) ::) ::)
There is a 5th dimension,beyond that which is known to man.It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity,between science& superstition,& it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.This is the dimension of imagination.It is an area which we call PCLINUXOS!

Online Rudge

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Re: <SOLVED, Sort Of> External Hard Drive Not Recognized After Format
« Reply #14 on: June 30, 2012, 09:42:34 PM »
Well,, sometimes you just got to slap something.  ;)


-If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe-  Carl Sagan