External HDD not recognised in Windows 10

Em Xx · 14 Mar 2018 at 13:48

Hi all,

I have a 1TB external HDD which is full of music, it worked fine on my old Windows 7 laptop but I now have a new laptop with Windows 10 and it simply will not read my external HDD.

I have searched online for hours and have run various tests but nothing!

When my laptop finally finishes searching for it, I get the following error:

Location is not available (not responding) F:\ is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect

Is there anyway of me getting my music from my external HDD?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Ps. I renamed the drive to F following a guide online but I have now renamed it back to E.

Many thanks,

Emma

DomBruv · 14 Mar 2018 at 14:02

plug it into another machine or use a different cable to connect.

What is the drive formatted as? NTFS?

mrbazmondo · 14 Mar 2018 at 14:11

Does it appear ok in computer management?
Does it have enough power - or does the external have its own power supply?

Em Xx · 14 Mar 2018 at 14:20

DomBruv said:
plug it into another machine or use a different cable to connect.

What is the drive formatted as? NTFS?

I plugged into another machine but that's also on Windows 10 - same issue.

I'm not sure if it's formatted to NTFS, how would I find that out?

mrbazmondo said:
Does it appear ok in computer management?
Does it have enough power - or does the external have its own power supply?

Yes it appears OK in computer management and it has its own power supply - I can hear it 'working' when it's plugged it.

mrbazmondo · 14 Mar 2018 at 14:23

Properties on the partition in computer management - should say "Filesystem: NTFS" on the General tab.
I assume the computer that its not working on shows it as having a drive letter.

Em Xx · 14 Mar 2018 at 14:25

mrbazmondo said:
Properties on the partition in computer management - should say "Filesystem: NTFS" on the General tab.
I assume the computer that its not working on shows it as having a drive letter.

I'll check when I get home and post a reply, thanks

Em Xx · 14 Mar 2018 at 19:06

mrbazmondo said:
Properties on the partition in computer management - should say "Filesystem: NTFS" on the General tab.
I assume the computer that its not working on shows it as having a drive letter.

Does this help?

DJ85 · 14 Mar 2018 at 19:13

A long way round It could be to empty your HDD on to a sub windows 10 device, then plug it into a windows 10 device and format, Then back to the other device and transfer back to HDD. I had a similar problem not long ago this fixed it for me. Just have the long wait on the transfer times from HDD to laptop and back again!

DJ85 · 14 Mar 2018 at 19:14

A long way round It could be to empty your HDD on to a sub windows 10 device, then plug it into a windows 10 device and format, Then back to the other device and transfer back to HDD. I had a similar problem not long ago this fixed it for me. Just have the long wait on the transfer times from HDD to laptop and back again!

Em Xx · 14 Mar 2018 at 20:58

Right, I've plugged my HDD into my old Windows 7 laptop and I'm getting the same error!

DJ85 · 15 Mar 2018 at 01:02

Are you able to run a CHKDSK on it?

mrbazmondo · 15 Mar 2018 at 09:45

If you can't get it working again and its your only copy you might need to start looking at data recovery.

It might be worth looking at the windows "Event Viewer". Look in Windows logs->System for events with "Disk" in the "Source" column on both computers. It might tell you something about the disk having failed blocks, or a corrupt filesystem.

In my experience NTFS disks don't like being unplugged without being ejected first. One disk I had before lost the entire filesystem just from being unplugged when the disk was idle.

APM · 15 Mar 2018 at 11:32

Do you have access to a linux system?

Do you have another drive ready to copy the data over to if you find you can access the original drive again?

Making a bootable usb Ubuntu install could be an idea,you can run ubuntu from the usb stick without having to install it.
Then plug your wayward hard drive in and see if you can access the data and if you can have another drive ready to copy the data over on to.

Linux is a bit less fussy than Windows about accessing usb drives for some reason and that could work.

Em Xx · 26 Mar 2018 at 20:35

APM said:
Do you have access to a linux system?

Do you have another drive ready to copy the data over to if you find you can access the original drive again?

Making a bootable usb Ubuntu install could be an idea,you can run ubuntu from the usb stick without having to install it.
Then plug your wayward hard drive in and see if you can access the data and if you can have another drive ready to copy the data over on to.

Linux is a bit less fussy than Windows about accessing usb drives for some reason and that could work.

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply, I was waiting for my usb stick to arrive! I thought everyone had one lying around but clearly not me... I've finally managed to make a bootable usb and have done what you've suggested, I can see my external hdd

but I can't get into it, it appears to be empty

pic below

Em Xx · 27 Mar 2018 at 10:24

Well I can't quite believe this but it seems to be recognised now!

I used Ubuntu via a bootable usb as per APM's advice, I couldn't see any files but I chose to mount it - still nothing. Then I re-booted my Windows 10 laptop with my external HDD plugged in and voila, I can all my files - just in the process of copying them over now. Fingers crossed. Thanks guys

APM · 27 Mar 2018 at 13:45

Ah,a happy ending!