# Solved: Windows 7 doesn't recognize external hard drive



## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

Hey all, 

I switched to Windows 7 a couple of months ago and I haven't had any problems. However, today I tried to connect my Seagate Freeagent external hard drive, its a 320 GB eSATA drive with USB 2.0 and my laptop doesn't recognize it. It always worked before when I had Windows Vista. I tried to use Disk Management to see the if I could find the drive, but its not there, I've also used partition wizard home edition. Essentially I've run out of ideas and was wondering if anyone could help me out. Thanks in advance!


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Is this a desktop?


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

Its a Dell XPS M1530 laptop. 

Thanks for the quick response.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Have you tried the external on other PCs to see if recognizes it.....if you get a PC to see it you could get the data off and then reformat it might help.

The reason I ask if you had a desktop is you can take the external drive out of the enclosure and hook it direct to a desktop using the internal connections


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

So, I just tried it on my desktop (in its enclosure) and it worked just fine, all the files are there and uncorrupted. But I don't think there is enough space on the desktop for all the stuff on my external (the desktop is a bit old).

Sorry, its a NFTS file system. I don't know if that changes anything.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Is this a USB connection....and is the external drive an older model?


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

The connection from the external to the computer is a USB 2.0. It has its own power supply. And its about...2 years ago for christmas.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Understood....... so when you plug it in nothing happens...in all USB ports?

Do other USB devices get recognized OK?


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

Nope, nothing happens at all. In all USB ports. And yes, i have an iPhone and it works fine.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Odd.....


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

Yep. Thats the thing, its really odd that it works in one place and not the other. Why would it work that way? Any ideas?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Does anything appear in Device Manager when you plug it in?

Have you tried plugging it in and turning it on before you boot the machine?


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

As soon as I plug it in it turns on, it doesn't really have on-off button per say. Its a virtual button (like the first ps3) but it hasn't worked for ages. So, i left it on, turned off the laptop and rebooted my laptop and it didn't show up. 

Nothing shows up in device manager when I plug it in.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Did it turn on when you booted up?

Do you have a different cable you can try (long shot)?

Any other USB devices plugged in? If there are, remove all other USB devices. Do you have any other drives connected to USB?


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

It was on during the whole boot process. I've not tried a different cable, but I don't have any other cables for that external hard drive. I've only tried it with nothing else connected, the only thing I ever connect is my iPhone and it works just fine.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Those are powered by USB, right? Does it have a "Y" cable so that you can get power from 2 USB ports? Sometimes they don't get enough power from 1. And you have tried all the other USB ports, right?

Though I'm not sure what you would be looking for, check the USB devices under your power options to see if any restrictions have been placed on them, and check the properties of the USB devices in Device Manager to see if there are any power settings, or even information.


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

Nope, this is an older model that gets in power through an ac power cable, which connects to the wall. 

I've looked in the USB devices in the Device manager and its simply doesn't show up. There is no change to the computer when its connected or not connect, thats what i find oddest of all, surely there should be some sort of reaction from the computer?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

You would think so unless it were dead. But it still works on other machines, right?

Try dowmloading an image (iso file) of Ubuntu or Knoppix and booting your machine up from one of those CD's. If the boot CD does not see that drive, either, then we will know that you have some sort of hardware problem. But if the drive works from the booted CD, we will know that Windows has a problem. That will at least cut the possibilities in half (and give you a chance to run Linux from a CD, which later you could use to recover data or make repairs if your machine would ot boot, so it has future uses, too).

http://www.knoppix.net/
http://www.ubuntu.com/


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

Yeah, it works on other machines. 

So, I d/l that, burn it to a disk, and then boot from the cd?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Yes. If the drive works, then we know that Windows is somehow the culprit. I actually had a very similar problem when Ccleaner wiped out most of my drivers, but it didn't look quite the same for you.


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

I'll give it a try and let you know


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## skriz130 (May 28, 2009)

So, I really have no idea how to explain this. I had the external hard drive connected to the desktop in my house of a couple of days, and today reconnected it to my laptop, and now it works. I really have no idea why. But i'm going to mark this one as solved and would like to thank you both for your help and attempts to help me fix this problem.


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## Megabite (Apr 5, 2008)

Gremlins must be in you house........


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