Strange issue - rig doesn't see external HDD

Monkey34

Monkey34

Supreme [H]ardness
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Apr 11, 2003
Messages
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Yesterday I plugged it in and transferred about 2gigs of files to the external (it has always worked fine) from this Xp pro rig.After it was done, I tried to "safely remove" and it said it was busy to try later, so I gave it a min and tried again. Still busy. I gave it another couple of mins, and it still said try later.....so being impatient I yanked the cord. ((shouldn't take THAT long)).

Well, I got a message in the taskbar about System Volume Information\EfaData\SYMEFA.DB-journal for the G: (external) corrupting. Evidently this is a Symantic file, but the drive is just storage....so why would it say G? Anyway, this directory and file dont exist on the external, but do on the C; drive.

On to the wierdness. The external is no longer seen on this rig as a "verbatim", shows no files, and shows as "RAW".

ON THIS RIG ONLY.

I plugged it into other rigs (XP pro, Vista, 7) and they all see it fine normally. All the files are there.

Scratching my head at this.:confused:
 
First guess, your virus scanner was scanning it when you "yanked" the cord.
 
Possibly, but my goal is to resolve why the rig won't read it...and fix it.
 
Does it show up in the Disk Management MMC, but just not get a drive letter?
 
Symantec is worse than any virus you can get. Uninstall it and get a proper AV or learn to live without one.
 
It's there WITH a drive letter assigned. Listed as Healthy, active....shows the full drive as one partition 232.88GB(correct). When you right-click for properties, it shows Used space, Free space, and capacity all "zero" with filesystem "raw".

BUT like I said......ONLY on this particular computer, and only after the error.
 
to be safe, Id save the files on another machine/location, then erase/repartition the drive
 
If you're going to keep Symantec you're going to 'enjoy' this kind of trouble and worse in the future. But suite yourself :D
 
dbwillis said:
to be safe, Id save the files on another machine/location, then erase/repartition the drive
Click to expand...
Going to try this tonight....although I'd be surprised if it resolved it seeing as every other rig sees it fine. Worth a shot.

B00nie said:
If you're going to keep Symantec you're going to 'enjoy' this kind of trouble and worse in the future. But suit yourself :D
Click to expand...
I know there hasn't been much love for Symantec over the years here, but honestly personally I've never had an issue with it either at home (except for having some bloated versions), or SEP at work. This rigs at work anyway. If the external wipe dosesn't do anything, I'll try a uninstall/cleanout of SEP next.

jimh425 said:
Have you tried a different port?
Click to expand...
Yup. Same thing.
 
Well, I copied all the files off and wiped/recreated the partition/formatted on a different rig....it didn't see it.

Wiped/recreated the partition/formatted on this rig......didn't see it.

Still works fine for other computers, so this rig is the problem - although why the OS can't read it is beyond me.

Can't run a checkdisk because the OS reports it as "raw".....it doesn't know what the filesystem is.

I'm probably going to end up just having to live with the fact that I can't use this external on this computer and move on, because I don't feel like reinstalling the OS.
 
What drivers are installed for the USB controllers? Default MS or manufacturer's? I recommend that you update the USB drivers. I've had issues w/ devices that didn't like MS's default drivers.
 
Monkey34 said:
Can't run a checkdisk because the OS reports it as "raw".....it doesn't know what the filesystem is.
Click to expand...

Even though it's raw, you should be able to give it a drive letter, click cancel when Windows says it needs to initialize or format the drive, then run chkdsk.

Or run chkdsk from a computer it works on, then try again in problem machine.
 
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