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Hi all!
Short story: I deleted the only primary partition
in my external hard-drive, and now the OS
(Windows XP/Ubuntu Linux) won't load the
drive, or the other (logical) partitions in it.Long story: This disk used to be the SATA
internal hard drive for my laptop. It had a
primary NTFS partition and a NTFS logical
partition. I put an adapter to turn it into an
external hard-drive for another computer, and it
worked perfectly. Today I deleted the primary
partition (it used to have Windows, Program
Files, ... which I don't need). And now it just
won't load. Neither Windows nor Linux will
recognize the hard drive when I plug it in. It
does not appear in the Windows Disk
Management tool, or in Partition Magic, or in
Ubuntu's Partition Manager.Anyone can think of some solution here?
Thanks!
Where are you looking to find the drive in Windows? Try Disk Management.
You may have made the drive not bootable but it should still show in Windows.
You may have the drive configured wrong. If you need to recover files from the extended partitions then you may be beter off trying to repair the primary partition. Testdisk MAY be able to help you with that. Get testdisk at the link below. Be sure to read the tutorials on how to use BEFORE attempting to use the program.
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Thanks for your reply.
Windows' Disk Management tool doesn't even notice that the
hard drive is actually plugged in. And testdisk doesn't, either :(
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Then watch the POST screens at start up to verify the hard drive is properly identified by both model and FULL capacity. If not then you may have it configured wrong.
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No matter what partition structure exists on the disk, it should still show up in the places you mentioned (Partition Magic, Disk Management, etc.)
Since it is not there, it sounds like a hardware problem. First, these external drives usually show up as two items to the operating system. First, there is the USB-IDE/SATA converter, then there is the hard drive itself. When you connect the drive to your computer, do you get any indication a USB device has been connected (the USB Connected beep for example)? Does the USB-ATA adapter show up in device manager(usually under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers")? Does the drive show up under device manager?
-Ryan Adams
Free Computer Tips and more:http://RyanTAdams.comPaid Tech Support: Black Diamond
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@OtherHill: I'm using the disk as an external drive, so there're
no POST messages about it :-S@RTAdams89:
Thanks for the explanation.
I also thought that the partition structure should not matter.
But now I am seriously considering that the fact that there's
no primary partition does make a difference...I do not get any indication whatsoever from the OS indicating
that a new external drive was connected. It does not show up
in the Device Manager. I have other USB external drives and
they do work properly (and of course appear in the Device
Manager).And this device was working perfectly. I deleted the primary
partition, I connected it again half an hour later and we're here,
it has become transparent for the OS. That's why I believe it
has to do with that partition being deleted.
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You should NEVER delete a primary partition if you wish to keep any logical drives in an extended partition.
As RT has pointed out the enclosure itself should show up even if there is a problem with the actual drive.
Is the enclosure AC powered? If so, check the power switch and connections.
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{That's why I believe it
has to do with that partition being deleted.} I do not know what the problem is but it is not due to deleting the primary partition.
Likely the adapter itself is the cause of problem. If you post make/model of adapter it might help.
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Yes, I clearly see that I shouldn't have deleted it...
The hard drive enclosure does power.
One more hint:
There are two leds: yellow and red. Usually the yellow is
always on, and the red only when some read/write operation
is being performed. Before, when you plugged the drive in, the
red light would keep on flashing while Windows does this
auto-load crap (it scans the drive to find out the type of
content and blabla...). Now this red light does turn on, but
only for one second. The yellow stays on the whole time (I
guess that's power), but there's no way to see the red light
again!
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As TopFarmer asks: the drive is a 2.5'' SATA Hitachi
Travelstar of 100GB (model hts541010g9sa00), bought 2
years ago. The enclosure is called "Vento", by Asus. I can't
find it in google, but it is just a simple controller to convert the
SATA to USB 2.0, that I bought for around $20 two months
ago.
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Do you have a way to bypass the enclosure? Either another enclosure/adapter or by connecting it directly to a computer's integrated SATA port... This would help to rule out the enclosure as the problem.
Is the drive spinning up?
-Ryan Adams
Free Computer Tips and more:http://RyanTAdams.comPaid Tech Support: Black Diamond
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Acronis Disk Director 10 would get you out of trouble, unfortunatly it's not free, if you have data you don't want to loose it may be worth the $50US.
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Yes, I did solve my problem.
I am now using my hard drive as an internal hard-drive,
plugged to the motherboard with a SATA cable. However, it
does not work through the USB adapter.So, as some people pointed out (and I didn't believe them at
that moment), the USB adapter doesn't work properly, and
that was the cause of the problem.And I did create a primary partition on the drive. (Now I see
that I didn't need to anyway.)Thanks a lot everyone!
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