IOmega 500GB USB Drive No Longer Accessible

I've been searching frantically for a potential resolution to this issue. Finally I just decided the only way I would get an answer is to ask myself, and this seemed a good place to ask.

My fiance has a 500GB IOmega USB External Harddrive that she stores most of her data on and is connected to her laptop. This harddrive was working perfectly fine last week, but one day she went and reset her computer and it no longer worked. Here's what's happening.

Windows Vista acknowledges that there is an external hard drive connected. However, where before it said it was an IOmega USB Device, now it just says "Local Hard Drive." Trying to open it results in a long loading time, and it never opens. Trying to right-click on it results in a long loading time, and eventually it was able to create a popup, but the Properties aren't displaying properly (everything is marked as 0, and it can't check the disk for errors)... In other words, it recognizes the drive exists, but it can't read it properly.

Is there any way to fix it? Even if I can't fix it, is there any way to recover the data? That's the most important part, and there's tons of data on it. And no, there is no backup.

The USB Drive is 3 years old, so "warranty-breaking" methods are plausible as even if there was a warranty, its long-since done with. I just want to help her recover the data, as there's so much personal information on it she doesn't want to lose.

All help is greatly appreciated.

 

Hi and welcome to windowsbbs.
It would help if you could take the time to give all 'System Details" about the laptop.
I'm not familiar with Vista, but I feel sure someone will check in who can. Cheers Neil

 

Okay, here's everything I could think of:

Toshiba Satellite A505
Intel "R" Core "TM" 2 Duo CPU
P7350@2.00GHZ 2.00GHZ
4.0 GB RAM
64 Bit Operating System

I don't know if this helps or not... Let me know if there's anything else I can provide that would be of help.

 

Thanks for your info. As you still haven't had a 'Vista' expert look in, here's my best.
Why did your fiance 'Reset' the laptop?
What was wrong or was this an error?
If it has been set to an earlier date by System Restore, I doubt if that would cause the problem
Did the 'Reset' re-install the OS?
You may have to install Drivers. My best thoughts. Neil.

 

Hi JR, just found this:
Well, I don't know if this could help but I had this same issue. Vista recognize my HardDisk, but I couldn't see and drive on My Computer folder. What I did was: 1. Open Computer Management (thru Start - Search, type "management" and it pops out) 2. Go to Disk Management, and there you should see all your storage devices. 3. Select your external hd, right-click and select "Change Device Letter" (or something like that) Et voilà, assign it a letter and it should appear on your My Computer folder. Hope this helps.

Might be worth a go. Neil.
Here's a link on what to do:http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/114767-drive-letter-add-change-remove.html

 

EDIT: Just wanted to note. It appears in Computer with a drive letter, but again, the text description is a little different... before it was actually recognized as an iOmega USB device, and afterwards it simply said "Local Disk Drive." I'll also note that I tried it on my Computer and it did the same thing. It even tried to install drivers when connecting up to my PC. My PC is a Dell Laptop running Windows 7.

Well, in this case, I can see a drive letter. I just can load the drive itself. If you can manage to get into Properties, Available Capacity, Unavailable Capacity, and Total Capacity are all marked as 0. In other words, it recognizes that the drive exists, but it can't load any data.

As for why she restarted the computer... what happened is that she was having a problem with Skype. Skype, for some reason, wouldn't send messages to certain people. Hoping that it would solve the issue, she went in and rebooted the PC. After the fact, Skype still wasn't working, and then she then proceeded to upgrade Skype as it was out-of-date.

Later, she went to check for a file and she couldn't access her external harddrive, and she hasn't been able to get in since. It was working before she rebooted the PC. I doubt upgrading Skype had anything to do with it, either...

 

Have you tried uninstalling Skype to see if there is a conflict? Neil.

 

I didn't think Skype would do something like that... I guess it couldn't hurt, though.

 

It wasn't me. I store all my files on my PC. My fiance kept storing everything on her external because she kept having issues with her laptop.

Thanks for the link, though... I'll check it out.

 

Just had a look in and see Arie has given you real bad news.
I would try and see if it's possible to access the Hard Drive inside the Iomega Housing. You said it was out of warranty - slave in desktop PC and see if you can get the info that way. Neil.

 

That was one thing I was going to try, too. She was recently talking with a friend, though, and found that her friend has some recovery software which may help, so she'll try that soon. If that doesn't work I'll try looking into seeing if I can open it up and get it inside an actual computer to see if it'll work that way... obviously following a tutorial, of course.

One other possibility I was thinking is that it may be dirty on the inside, so perhaps if I could open it up I may be able to clean it... Either way, I guess there's not much option but to try these more risky methods... but, really, the data is as good as lost right now, anyway.

I was just hoping that someone might be able to give me a more direct answer as to what's causing this specific problem, as I couldn't find it anywhere. Either way, we'll try some additional methods of recovering the data.

 

If as Arie suggests that the external drives go South in big numbers - that will be why it can't be recognized. It's the usual message that you get when the HD goes South. Neil.

 

I suppose I could call this "complete." We've tried a number of methods... the next step she's going to take is try and use some recovery software to retrieve the data, and if that doesn't work, take it to a shop and see if they can repair it. It hasn't exactly been "resolved" yet, but it doesn't seem like anyone else here can help much.

 

Have you removed the drive from the enclosure and slaved it in another system?

If not I would do so before running any recovery software on it, if the interface is fubar it trying to recover data could make things worse.

Once you've slaved the drive internally run the manufacturers disk diagnostic tests.

It may be worth checking out your hard drive using the manufacturer's disk diagnostics:

ExcelStore

Fujitsu

Hitachi/IBM

Samsung

Seagate, Maxtor, Quantum

Toshiba

Western Digital

 

Its hard for me to do that now... I was thinking about trying to do that (I've seen that mentioned at several places), but she's currently in Minnesota for the summer (of course with the external harddrive) so I can't really get into it myself right now. She was planning on taking her laptop in to try and get a part in it fixed (since her warranty on her laptop is still valid) and ask someone there if they can help.

I can relay the message, though. I'll also warn her not to try recovery software just yet.

 

If it's a reputable repairs service and she's going there anyway it's probably best to go that route if the data is important.

Let us know how you get on.

 

Alright. I'll get back here when I hear more from her about it.