i just backed up my computer before reformating, now i can;t get anything off my ext HD. It doesn;t work on any computer i try, each one recognizes a ext HD been plugged in USB, but then no drive appears in my computer. Each computer WINXP and its a 250gb usb 2.0 drive.

i have all my music and years of photos on this can anyone help me get them off?

It could just be that the drive letter the external HDD wants is taken; I've had that happen with USB keys before.

With the drive connected, right-click My Computer, click Manage, and go to Disk Management. Your external drive should show up on the list. Right-click it and select Change Drive Letter and Paths... then pick a letter no other drive is using (Q or something. Your external drive should then show up properly in My Computer.

Hope that helps!

thanks but my drive didn't appear under manage anywhere.

go looking in the device manager to make sure its not unable to start for some reason?

in device manager it shows up like everything is fine

now that's odd......so the drive shows up as being there.....but no letter...and its not in disk management (start-> run -> diskmgmt.msc <enter> )

have you tried other devices on the usb port in question?

thats correct. the safely remove hardware is only thing that sees it.. says whole name without driveletter at end like other devices

Hey Meatymeal, try adding a jumper to the external HD to make it a Master, had the same problem and it worked for me.

If all else fails, can take the drive out of the case and install it as internal hdd

was able to recover most of my data with getdatabackFAT my friend had, after going thru 4-5 other programs this was 1 of 2 that could even see my usb drive.

Now what could i do to save my ext hd?? should i try reformatting or do i ned to do something special since its a usb drive?

If you have all your data, try formatting it. You should be able to just plug it into a USB port on any computer and have it recognized. It's possible it's a problem with the case if it's not recognized on other computers in which case you could buy another case or install it as an internal drive

Another issue I have seen with USB drives, is the USB port is under powered. I would try pluging into the back of the computer were the I/O Shield is. Yes you can just reformat the drive. You can also download a program like System Mechanic Pro from WWW.IOLO.COM for a free 30 day spin. It has a drive scrubber program as well as a program to check your drive.

taking me a while to gett all my files off. When i reformatt do i need to use windows;s cd or run a command prompt?(b/c i don't know who to search for drives with no letters assigned to them)

You could try downloading and running the diagnostic/repair software from the hdd mfg website. Can you see it in Disk Manager- Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management. If so, you could give it a Drive letter and format it.