1TB Rock Mobile External Drive won't read

[sexie25]

It seems that the green liught comes on. When I plug into my computer, it reads and tells me that my drive is ready to use, only it does not show up on my drive list. How can get it to work to retreive data.

 

[pip22]

It sounds like Windows has merely failed to assign a drive-letter to it, hence Explorer can't show it.
It's a common issue with drives that aren't permanently connected to the system.
It's happened to me several times but there's an easy fix for that:
Plug the drive in and wait for "ready to use" confirmation or the hardware connected sound.
Now go to Control Panel > Admin Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

At bottom right of computer management console, find the ribbon which relates to the external drive (it will probably say "Raw" and the capacity, but no volume name or letter).

Right-click that ribbon and choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths"
The remaining steps are fairly straightforward.

 

[sexie25]

It gives it a drive but in the ribbon it says no media. What should I change the drive or path to?

 

[Elvandil]

The drive appears to be empty. You can use it for storage now if Disk Management says "Healthy". Make sure you have backups of everything because externals are the most unreliable storage.

 

[sexie25]

The external drive does not show up on my computer. When I open my folder, I only see the c drive.

 

[Elvandil]

What does Disk Management say about it exactly? Does it have a drive letter now? Do you have your system set to hide empty drives and is the drive now empty?

Is this a new drive?

 

[sexie25]

It shows E drive under disk management. It says no media. I do not know how to tell if the the system set is hiding. I know the drive has information on it because I took everything off my computer. The drive wass reading at one time. When I attach the drive it tells me that it has loaded sucessfully and is rady for use, I just can not see it on my computer.

 

[Elvandil]

Are you sure that the E: drive is not your CD/DVD drive?

Are there any other drives listed that you don't recognize (scroll down)?

Go to Control Panel > Folder Options. Under the View tab, uncheck the box to hide empty drives.

So you have files on that drive? Do you have backups? If so, you can partition and format the drive.

If you have files on the drive and it is not registering, the drive may be faulty or the file system damaged. Has the drive been bumped or dropped or anything? Can you feel or hear it run when it is connected?

Where does the drive get its power? Do you have an external power supply? What model of drive?

 

[sexie25]

I can hear and feel the drive running. It was working prior to me going into the hospital on sept 30th. No one should have been using my drive because I had my laptop with me. The power has a cord that i plug into the wall or surge protector and a cord that goes into the usb port on the computer. Model hd2-su2

 

[Elvandil]

OK. It's running at least. That doesn't necessarily mean that it is not damaged.

But do you see your CD-ROM drive is Disk Management? The one that says "no media" must be an optical drive with no disk in it. Is that the case? Does your drive E: change in Disk Management when you put in a CD?

Are there any other drives in Disk Management and does your drive show under Drives in Device Manager?

 

[sexie25]

My cd drive is listed as D. The E drive is an USB drive

 

[Elvandil]

You can just erase everything on the drive and see if it will be usable again. In Disk Management, right-click and delete the volume. Then, right-click and create a new, basic volume.