computer help needed from tech savvy folks !

[9zero1790]

m kay - i did two bad things. 1 - something dumb on accident.
I was moving a large group of videos onto an external hard drive from a micro sd card plugged into my old laptop while laying in bed. dropped the tv remote and reached for it. recovered the remote. but in the process pulled the usb cable out from the laptop while in the middle of file transfer to the external hard drive. and as you can guess that screwed the pooch. so -
all the usb ports check out fine
cable is fine
tried the drive on two computers and a tablet - no go
all drivers etc. working
external drive does power up
disc spins, lights flash
it shows up in disk management but no name, no info, just mass storage usb drive shows.
tried doing the refresh disk, initialize disk, and get crc error message.
tried to do chk dsk from cmd exe and without a drive "name" i got no place. before the tv remote incident it was drive E.

now the external hard drive does not show up under my computer or any place except in computer management but will not allow any changes as it has no disk name etc. now.

So I assume if i can name the external hard drive I could then do DSK CHK or CALCCHK etc. to get it going or at least get my files back.
this is in windows 7.

and now for the 2nd bad thing i did ... I was taking all the important photos and documents from the past 20 years that were spread out on a collection of flash drives and old computers and putting them all on the external drive. then i formatted all the flash drives and old computers etc. so i could donate them to a school. that means i dont have the stuff any where else now- just the external hard drive. my plan was get them all on the external drive and then put the external drive in my safe, buy another external drive to copy them all to and use to add and mess with files etc. I thought this would make them more secure.shot my self in the foot in the process. I only had a couple more gigs to go and it would have been done. I need this to work again.

Anyone got ideas on how get the external hard drive to show up with a name and be accessible ?

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[RedlandRanger]

One lesson learned - NEVER delete the source drive until you've made SURE that the copy was successful - I always wait a while before deleting the source drive to make sure all is good.

Second thing - just formatting a disk does not make it safe to donate - disks can be unformatted and most info can be recovered. What you really want to do is to do a secure wipe, which will be safe.

Lastly, unfortunately, I don't have many good ideas on how to solve your issue. I've been stung myself - one wrong bit tweaked at the wrong time can make an otherwise good drive totally unusable. I've also had issues where some of the "fix" programs have totally messed up drives.

As a "Hail Mary" - if you haven't done it already, reboot the computer and see if the drive will get mounted after a reboot. Another option would be to use the disk management tool to see if you can assign a drive letter to it as shown in this video:

Good luck - stuff like this is really frustrating - it is the downside of digital anything and why having copies of data in multiple places is incredibly important because you can lose it in the blink of an eye.

 

[9zero1790]

One lesson learned - NEVER delete the source drive until you've made SURE that the copy was successful - I always wait a while before deleting the source drive to make sure all is good.

Second thing - just formatting a disk does not make it safe to donate - disks can be unformatted and most info can be recovered. What you really want to do is to do a secure wipe, which will be safe.

Lastly, unfortunately, I don't have many good ideas on how to solve your issue. I've been stung myself - one wrong bit tweaked at the wrong time can make an otherwise good drive totally unusable. I've also had issues where some of the "fix" programs have totally messed up drives.

As a "Hail Mary" - if you haven't done it already, reboot the computer and see if the drive will get mounted after a reboot. Another option would be to use the disk management tool to see if you can assign a drive letter to it as shown in this video:

Good luck - stuff like this is really frustrating - it is the downside of digital anything and why having copies of data in multiple places is incredibly important because you can lose it in the blink of an eye.

I keep trying the disk management route and the drive shows up but will not let me name or scan etc. just says crc error.

 

[RedlandRanger]

I'd probably start looking at data recovery tools - there are a lot - If one doesn't work, I'd try a different one. Here is one I've used: https://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

 

[9zero1790]

I'd probably start looking at data recovery tools - there are a lot - If one doesn't work, I'd try a different one. Here is one I've used: https://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

thank you ! I will give it a shot this weekend

 

[TJC]

If your HD is a spinner (vs an SSD) you should never touch or move it while it is in operation. Having the drive on your bed while operating it is a BIG mistake. You are asking for heads to crash into platters...cratering the drive.

An SSD is solid state HD, no moving parts. It can take far more abuse than a mechanical spinner.

Your computer can see the USB port when you plug it in, but the USB port may see the HD controller, but the platters may still be damaged.

I know you didn't mention this, but if you were moving around on a bed enough to unplug the USB cable, it is more than enough movement to destroy the platters from a head crashing into the surface of the platter. Those platters are typically spinning at 5400 - 7200 rpms with read write heads floating just microns above the platter surfaces. It only takes one bump to knock the heads into the moving platters.

When the drive is off the heads are retracted and parked in a relatively safe position, but when powered up the drive needs to be completely stationary.

Your problem can be two fold.

1 - a simple interruption of the data stream and power loss. HD have a rather large cache (buffer) that increases the transfer speeds, esp for small files, as the USB transfer speed is far faster than the read write speeds of a mechanical HD. If power is lost when a transfer is occurring, everything in the cache will be lost.

2 - If the HD was jarred even a little will spinning, phycical damage is quite possible to the read / write heads and the platters, and that data where the head crash occurred is gone and it not recoverable. The HD is bricked.

When you plug in a USB drive there are several interface links in the chain. Your computer talks to the HD interface through USB to USB communications. The HD interace writes the data it sees coming through to the HD platters. So when you connect the USB drive to the computer, your computer sees the USB drive and reports it sees the HD firmeware. This firmware containe the specs for the HD platters, speeds, number of heads, etc. But it doesn't actually read or write to the platters.

In short, just because your computer sees the drive, does not mean it can read/write to the platters... or access data.

In option 1, some but not all of the data can be retrieved without disassembly of the drive.

In option 2, it is possible to retrieve the data, but the drive is toast (heads destroyed and platters damaged in contact area) and the platters will need to be removed to read the data, a much more expensive proposition.

HD rules to live by

If the drive is an old school spinner, always have the drive on a soild surface and never move it once it is turned on. Even when it is off, treat it with care, no big jolts.

Modern SSDs are more robust as they are completely electronic devices with no moving parts.

Fully backup your data on multiple devices and have those devics stored in multiple locations. Your data is far more precious and fragile than the device that holds the data.

Having two external USB 1 or 2 TB SSDs is a good idea for the average person who wants to keep data safe. They are very small, very fast, and resistant to damage. They also take much less power.

Use one as your primary backup and then back the backup to the other. Keep them close but in different areas in case of theft or fire.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[9zero1790]

If your HD is a spinner (vs an SSD) you should never touch or move it while it is in operation. Having the drive on your bed while operating it is a BIG mistake. You are asking for heads to crash into platters...cratering the drive.

An SSD is solid state HD, no moving parts. It can take far more abuse than a mechanical spinner.

Your computer can see the USB port when you plug it in, but the USB port may see the HD controller, but the platters may still be damaged.

I know you didn't mention this, but if you were moving around on a bed enough to unplug the USB cable, it is more than enough movement to destroy the platters from a head crashing into the surface of the platter. Those platters are typically spinning at 5400 - 7200 rpms with read write heads floating just microns above the platter surfaces. It only takes one bump to knock the heads into the moving platters.

When the drive is off the heads are retracted and parked in a relatively safe position, but when powered up the drive needs to be completely stationary.

Your problem can be two fold.

1 - a simple interruption of the data stream and power loss. HD have a rather large cache (buffer) that increases the transfer speeds, esp for small files, as the USB transfer speed is far faster than the read write speeds of a mechanical HD. If power is lost when a transfer is occurring, everything in the cache will be lost.

2 - If the HD was jarred even a little will spinning, phycical damage is quite possible to the read / write heads and the platters, and that data where the head crash occurred is gone and it not recoverable. The HD is bricked.

When you plug in a USB drive there are several interface links in the chain. Your computer talks to the HD interface through USB to USB communications. The HD interace writes the data it sees coming through to the HD platters. So when you connect the USB drive to the computer, your computer sees the USB drive and reports it sees the HD firmeware. This firmware containe the specs for the HD platters, speeds, number of heads, etc. But it doesn't actually read or write to the platters.

In short, just because your computer sees the drive, does not mean it can read/write to the platters... or access data.

In option 1, some but not all of the data can be retrieved without disassembly of the drive.

In option 2, it is possible to retrieve the data, but the drive is toast (heads destroyed and platters damaged in contact area) and the platters will need to be removed to read the data, a much more expensive proposition.

HD rules to live by

If the drive is an old school spinner, always have the drive on a soild surface and never move it once it is turned on. Even when it is off, treat it with care, no big jolts.

Modern SSDs are more robust as they are completely electronic devices with no moving parts.

Fully backup your data on multiple devices and have those devics stored in multiple locations. Your data is far more precious and fragile than the device that holds the data.

Having two external USB 1 or 2 TB SSDs is a good idea for the average person who wants to keep data safe. They are very small, very fast, and resistant to damage. They also take much less power.

Use one as your primary backup and then back the backup to the other. Keep them close but in different areas in case of theft or fire.

Sorry for your loss.

Thank you Tony!

 

[KNI]

If the pictures are valuable, STOP.

Don't do anything.

Then bring the drive to some real data recovery service (ibas.com) and let them pick the pieces up. Sound like you just lost drive information sectors so the data is still intact.

If you don't mind losing the data and it's just nice to have, then pick some data recovery software from the net. Success rate is pretty good, but a failed restore may make the data unrecoverable with more advanced systems.

 

[Nellieg]

You can also follow up with customer support for the HDD drive... They might have a mail it in and recover capability if the disk data is there but you fried the disk electronics in the disconnect.

 

[RedlandRanger]

If the pictures are valuable, STOP.

Don't do anything.

Then bring the drive to some real data recovery service (ibas.com) and let them pick the pieces up. Sound like you just lost drive information sectors so the data is still intact.

If you don't mind losing the data and it's just nice to have, then pick some data recovery software from the net. Success rate is pretty good, but a failed restore may make the data unrecoverable with more advanced systems.

This is excellent advice. So was @TJC's advice. Better than mine.....

It really all depends on how valuable the data is you are trying to recover. If it really is irreplaceable, let the experts deal with it. What they do isn't cheap, but they can do some pretty amazing work and recover most data.

I had not thought about physical damage, but Tony is right - if it is s physical (spinner) hard drive, damage is very possible. Modern hard drives are pretty tolerant, but what you describe could have physically damaged the drive.

Good luck - let us know how it all turns out.

 

[TJC]

I have been in I/T HW and SW development fro a very long time.

Losing your data can be extremely painful. I enrolled at a 4 month long IBM SW School in Dallas to learn to code in PLAS on IBM mainframes. Each week we had severe stress tests to see if we could adapt to the deadline pressures of coding. I had ivy league graduates on both sides of me in this class.

The instructors would give us the raw input data, and the acceptable output report layouts. They gave us 48 hours to complete a flow chart of the data, the pseudo code, and the actual code and final report. If you failed to deliver any of these steps twice in the 4 months, you were booted from the program and fired from the company. It was a make or break situation.

We'd be working all night to get these tasks completed. 4 or 5 times a night the mainframe would shutdown without notice, and if you had not saved your code, it was wiped, and you had to start all over.

I completed printing the reports with 2 minutes to spare on the first project at 7:58 am. I was up all night. I failed that checkpoint.

On the first line of the report the date and time was required in this format.
10/24/85 07:58

My report had this
10/24/85 07;58

That simple typo of a constant - a ";" instead of a ":" caused me to flunk that checkpoint with an "incorrect output"! I simply did not hold the shift key down when typing the constant!

The point that those instructors were trying to drive home was to constantly back up what you are doing. Expect the unexpected, and prepare for it. 4 times that night the system crashed wiping out my work. The first 3 times I had not backed up often enough and had to recreate big chunks of source code and then recompile it all.

BTW, the instructors never warned us about system crashes, or the need to back up our work. They simply threw us into the deep end of the pool and watched to see if we could swim.

40% of the class failed that course and exited the company. I did not fail another checkpoint and kept my job and was promoted.

I have never forgotten that lesson. If it is important, you can never have enough backups.

 

[RedlandRanger]

I have been in I/T HW and SW development fro a very long time.

Losing your data can be extremely painful. I enrolled at an 4 month long IBM SW School in Dallas to learn to code in PLAS on IBM mainframes. Each week we had severe stress tests to see if we could adapt to the deadline pressures of coding. I had ivy league graduates on both side of me in this class.

The instructors would give us the raw input data, and the acceptable output reports. The give us 48 hours to complete a flow chart of the data, the pseudo code, and the actual code and report. If you failed to deliver any of these steps twice in the 4 months you were booted from the program and fired from the company. It was a make or brake situation.

We'd be working all night to get these tasks completed. 4 or 5 times a night the mainframe would shutdown without notice, and if you had not saved your code, it was wiped, and you had to start all over.

I completed printing the reports with 2 minutes to spare on the first project at 7:58 am. I was up all night. I failed that checkpoint.

On the first line of the report the date and time a was required in this format.
10/24/85 07:58

My report had this
10/24/85 07;58

That simple typo of a constant - a ";" instead of a ":" caused me to flunk that checkpoint with an "incorrect output"! I simply did not hold the shift key down when typing the constant!

The point that those instructors were trying to drive home was to constantly back up what you are doing. Expect the unexpected, and prepare for it. 4 times that night the system crashed wiping out my work. The first 3 times I had not backed up often enough and had to recreate big chunks of source code and then recompile it all.

BTW, the instructors never warned us about system crashes, or the need to back up our work. They simply threw us into the deep end of the pool and watched to see if we could swim.

40% of the class failed that course and exited the company. I did not fail another checkpoint and kept my job and was promoted.

I have never forgotten that lesson. If it is important, you can never have enough backups.

Great story - I've been in IT for over 30 years as well, doing software on a variety of platforms. I think stories like this need to be told to the newcomers - things today auto backup, but the code I see being written today is incredibly poor at handling errors. It is all happy path stuff.

I too remember times when I forgot to backup things and lost more than I wanted to....

I guess I am really an old fart - now GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!

 

[TJC]

it is relatively easy to write a program that performs a given task. But It is incredibly difficult to write a program that handles errors gracefully. And there are LOTS of areas where logic may be flawed / incomplete, or overlooked.

Lazy coders use high level languages that catch some of the obvious errors, but I have seen production applications that allow any input into numeric field. Absolutely unforgivable that this sloppiness gets out the door. This type of error is completely unacceptable.

But I see it all the time.

I have a friend who is still coding and used an AI bot to generate code. It came back flawless in seconds. But it missed a few things due to his lack of stating adequate requirements. He clarified the request and it came back perfect.

He's beginning to wonder how long he will have his job!

 

[RedlandRanger]

it is relatively easy to write a program that performs a given task. But It is incredibly difficult to write a program that handles errors gracefully. And there are LOTS of areas where logic may be flawed / incomplete, or overlooked.

Lazy coders use high level languages that catch some of the obvious errors, but I have seen production applications that allow any input into numeric field. Absolutely unforgivable that this sloppiness gets out the door. This type of error is completely unacceptable.

But I see it all the time.

I have a friend who is still coding and used an AI bot to generate code. It came back flawless in seconds. But it missed a few things due to his lack of stating adequate requirements. He clarified the request and it came back perfect.

He's beginning to wonder how long he will have his job!

I call it the 80/20 rule - it takes 80 percent of the time to finish the last 20% of the code. It is relatively easy to write code that just handles the happy path - it is a lot more work to make that code handle errors well. I see it all the time as well and IMO it is getting worse. The ongoing mindset is "we will fix it later".

A key tenet of software engineering is to eliminate defects as early as possible in the development cycle, but what I see more and more is that they are found much later, which costs a LOT more money.

AI bots are interesting but I still think it will be a while before they can replace humans. I think offshoring is the more immediate concern for developers honestly. I'm very happy I'm close to retirement so I can escape all that craziness.

 

[TJC]

I lived by the 80/20 rule. Cost 20% to achieve 80% function. But that last 20% of function will blow the budget.

The same rule applies for project management and human behavior. I would see project stalled for 80% of the project and then insane effort in the last 20% of the schedule to make the date. Then as the date came up, the team would invariably descope the requirements so everything appeared succesful.

I never allowed this to happen on my watch. I wrote a detailed project plans with clear objectives and clear pass / fail criteria that could be objectively measured to prove we met the objectives. The less than honorable team members ran from these projects as there was no place to hide work effort or results.

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