PC Problem - I'm stuck!!

[gerrymoore]

This is a case of leave well alone!! I saw a post on the forum yesterday someone had lost all their info from PC and wanted to make a full backup in case it happened again ...great Idea I thought.

So I had a spare 1Tb external hard drive.... I erased it and formatted it. Download a program called Paragon (free) and followed the instructions to put in a penstick to make it bootable ..I did this ...then it said attach an external HDD for the backup data ..I did this and it said no HDD was attached. When I checked on file manager (WIN 10 64bit) it did not 'see' the drive ?? So I have a few external drives that I use a lot ...it did not 'see' any of them

So, hours later, I cannot get the PC to recognise any of my external drives ..I've tried 4 USB ports and 3 cables ..the drivers are up to date and I tried Windows file fix and that didn't help. I have tried all the drives in my laptop and they are all fine!!

In device manager, the drive shows up but unpopulated - when I populate then the size shows up as normal but the PC cannot read it and there is no drive letter. I get the error message that "each drive has not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match" ???

I've messed with PC's since late 80's but this has me stuck!!

Any help or ideas really welcome as I use my external drives a lot.....

 

[Seadog]

It's possibly a driver issue.

 

[gerrymoore]

Drivers are OK and up to date and I've run Windows filefix ...all the internal drives (6 of them) are all working fine. Also if I put a penstick in it finds it and reads files fine ..just the external HDD's are not being found ??

 

[gaz1]

usb external drives are known for driver issues
ive also found out windows 10 refuses to recognise my large usb sticks worked fine with windows 7 plugged it into windows 10 it tried to boot them then refused and will not recognise them again yet windows 7 still sees them this is brand new usb sticks 32gb/ 64gb ( early windows 10 laptop version )

so from the new post we are dealing with a pc base unit

not a laptop with an external hard drive attached there is a difference between them

and we are not playing with a pulled laptop hard drive plugged into a pc base computer

 

[RWD3M]

I'm sure you will have already tried switching it off and back on again, but have you tried with the external drives connected? I have had some success in the past with this approach.

Good luck.

 

[gaz1]

now paragon search for me means its a mobile phone

Google Search

this all helps

so i get your using windows 10 which version ?

what software are you using to backup your data
( not all software will work with windows 10 as some of the older ones dont recognise this format )

create a bootable device is fun i prefer ruffus for usb but i also do run others and have others on the bootable stick cd/dvd disk ive had few fail to open with some of them

 

[MoreWellie]

I erased it and formatted it

Depends what you mean by this. If you did a low level format then the disk will no longer have a partition on it which means it wouldn't show up in windows file manager

Right click on windows start menu button and go to Disk Management. If you can see the external disk in there and it shows as uninitialised space then you could right click on the uninitialised space and create a partition. The disk would then be visible in File Manager

This would get it working within windows again but not might not be what you need for your backup program

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Depends what you mean by this. If you did a low level format then the disk will no longer have a partition on it which means it wouldn't show up in windows file manager

Right click on windows start menu button and go to Disk Management. If you can see the external disk in there and it shows as uninitialised space then you could right click on the uninitialised space and create a partition. The disk would then be visible in File Manager

This would get it working within windows again but not might not be what you need for your backup program

Good point but I'd expect a backup program to recognise an unallocated drive for formatting. Acronis certainly does .

Next step for me would be to plug in directly rather than through the caddy

 

[jonclancy]

Yep, I have been here before. Disk Manager to partition the drive to see it.

 

[daleyd]

For acronis I seem to remember the drive has to (or at least did on a previous version I used, but now I do it as a matter of course anyway) be plugged in before you start the backup/restore procedure.

I would usually plug in the external drive, insert the dvd/usb, reboot into acronis and the acronis OS would then pick up all the drives. When I first started using it many years ago if you rebooted into acronis and then plugged the drives in they wouldn’t be seen (though as I say this may I’ve changed now)

Don’t know if this is the same for your backup software but maybe worth a go?

 

[gaz1]

For acronis I seem to remember the drive has to (or at least did on a previous version I used, but now I do it as a matter of course anyway) be plugged in before you start the backup/restore procedure.

I would usually plug in the external drive, insert the dvd/usb, reboot into acronis and the acronis OS would then pick up all the drives. When I first started using it many years ago if you rebooted into acronis and then plugged the drives in they wouldn’t be seen (though as I say this may I’ve changed now)

Don’t know if this is the same for your backup software but maybe worth a go?

its still the same now and goes for many backup programs what your going to boot with and alos where your going to back up too has to be plugged in for them to work

still waiting for gerry to fill us in what hes using

theres many types of back ups that can be done

 

[gerrymoore]

If you read my post it is all 5 of my drives not working ... been using these for years without problem and they're fine in my laptop ... I've given up with any backup just want my drives back ....

 

[gerrymoore]

Just to be sure ... penstick works fine but every one of my external drives not being seen .. there is the usual ding donf when I plug them in but nothing in file manager tried 4 different USB ports and cables ???

 

[voipio]

It could be a permissions thing, or a drive letter allocation issue, or USB drives haven't been enabled in the BIOS, or a USB power management issue.

 

[gaz1]

Just to be sure ... penstick works fine but every one of my external drives not being seen .. there is the usual ding donf when I plug them in but nothing in file manager tried 4 different USB ports and cables ???

its windows as ive had the same issue myself

with me i plugged in the usb stick it rung its bells started installing the drives and then nothing unplug and retry and get the same thing yet again

i presume this is what you are getting gerry

i had it with 2 brand new usb drives one a sandisk and a samsung usb drive it refused to install them 32gb and a 64gb

via my hp laptop windows 10

windows 10 wont recognise the usb stick - Google Search

dont download this software only showing what i got with the usb stick

Fixed: Samsung USB Device Not Recognized in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7

Samsung USB flash drive not recognized in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7? Learn what caused Samsung USB device not recognized and how to let Windows recognize it accordingly.

www.diskpart.com

even i dont mess with registry files as you can do more damage than what you think

 

[jsf55]

If it's a windows update that's gone to c*ck can you not try a rollback ?

 

[MoreWellie]

Try and see if there are any windows updates waiting and if they are then install them. I suggest this not because I think the update will make a difference but because a windows 10 PC restart when on default settings will probably just do a sleep and restore which brings it back in exactly the same state

A restart during an update will always do a real restart

Alternately just hold the power switch in for 6 or more seconds whilst windows is running but this is a tad more brutal

when it comes back just try a drive from within windows

Are the external hard drives all in their own boxes and attached by standard USB cables or are you using one caddy box and fitting different drives in it

I take it you are only attaching one drive and/or stick at a time

It also wasn't totally clear whether the other drives have all been formatted or if they had been attached at any time when Paragon was booted from the stick

Did you download Paragon from paragon-software.com or somewhere else?

 

[gerrymoore]

Thanks everyone.. although I downloaded the paragon software all it done was the 'boot ' stick which I never got round to using cos of the hdd problems. I have removed it now. All my external drives ( a mix of ssd and old school) are in their own caddie and have been used many many times without problem. I have tried them with my laptop and no probs. I have built loads of pc's over last 30 years but have never come across this ... pc doesn't recognise any of them? ? I bought this pc ready built a few years ago it is very high spec and the bill from Scan was over 3 grand although I paid a lot less. Has been faultless until now ..... I have a LOT of software on it so to reload window's would be a real pita .... arrrggghhhh

 

[gaz1]

so did it come with windows 10 or did it do a forced upgrade on you ?

mines locked out so i never got the upgrade

i bought the laptop with windows 10 installed upon it whilst away and needing something better to watch films upon and i hated it that soon got locked down as i didnt like the forced update and that they controlled it ( like hell was they gonna control it )

I only found out about the issues with the usb sticks as i bought them while i was away from home as i wanted to back up some photos and music and some films
then i found out it wouldnt install any of the brand new usb sticks of 32gb or the 64gb both usb3 at that

the worst part is they work fine in my other machines and not windows 10

the windows 10 machine i forced a boot down to a lower operating system on it run from the bios and guess what they was seen and read and played no problem windows 10 forget it

live cd/dvd via a usb stick is what i used but i wouldnt advise doing it as it can hurt the boot system i know what im doing so it dosnt bother me to do so

 

[Stupoty]

Can you see the drives in the disc management tab ?

Stu