[travismc]

Hello,

I have Windows Vista and a nearly 6-year-old 80 gb Maxtor 5000LE that is not responding. I recently unloaded all of its contents onto another external hard drive, leaving no files on the drive. After I did that, I took the time to "safely remove hard drive" (an option for USB drives I forgo 99% of the time) and unplugged it after being given the safe notice. Before that, after opening up the Format menu on the drive in Computer, I decided not to reformat the drive and closed the window.

That was a couple days ago. I plugged that drive back in today with the aim to fill back up the blank drive only for it to not really detect. The sound alert for a newly detected drive is signaled, and I can see a drive with a default icon in Computer, but Computer stalls and takes several minutes to load/refresh itself when I try to left or right click on the 80 gb drive. It ultimately won't let me do anything, as it "is not accessible because of an I/O device error."

I have tried all three different USB ports, and it works properly in none of them as of today. It is fully plugged in. Putting my ear to it, I can hear it "thinking" or working, it just doesn't operate.

I did download Maxtor's PowerMax program and ran it, but it said something about not detecting a diskette or drive, so I closed and deleted it.

Obviously, with it being a blank drive, I'm not losing any files, but I still want what I paid for to operate, and I have a purpose for the drive, so I would like some assistance. Thank you very much.

[Triple6]

Have you looked in Disk Management to see if the drive shows there and if you can repartition and reformat it there? Disk Management: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000

[Gulo Luseus]

As triple says, it may need work, depending on what was done to it when you removed it. Other than that, theres a reasonable chance it has died. 6 years is a pretty good span for a drive, and removing it , moving it, and putting it back may have been th enudge that ended its life. Not to say it is, but bear it in mind

[travismc]

The drive is still not accessible through Computer, but in Computer ("Disk") Management (thanks for the tip), it's listed as "Healthy (Primary Partition)," File System "RAW" (unlike the other drives that are NTFS and FAT32), and 100% Free. Should I choose "Format" on this drive? "Mark Partition as Active"? I just want it to be usable, if possible.

I also forgot to mention that a few minutes after I "safely removed" the drive a couple days ago, while it was still plugged into the surge protector, I lost all electrical power for an hour or so. My newer external drive was fine when I regained power, but I've not been able to open up my older external drive since.

[Triple6]

Right click on it in Disk Management to create a primary partition on the drive, during that procedure it will ask you to format the drive and assign it a drive letter so you can use it again. You can also refer to the previous article for more detailed instructions.

[travismc]

I reformatted my drive, and it seems to be functioning normal. Thanks for your help.

[Triple6]

No Problem