Maxtor One-Touch external drive - suddenly Windows doesn't see it anymore...help?

tis only me wrote:

......

Ok, so it's lost the drive letter. Can you see it in disk management, and
what does it tell there, and then when you right-click the partition entry?
Can you see it when you start from a livecd like knoppix or winpe?

 

You guys in here have never let me down over the past 10 years, but
this problem may have too many possibilities.

Last night...while un-raring some files on my Maxtor 300gig external
drive, I accidentally pulled the power cord out of my Canon printer
that was also on..connected with USB. (Maxtor is connected using USB
as well.)

Got the usual warning from Windows with the "unplug and eject" dialog,
clicked "ok" and then found out that my Maxtor had disappeared from
sight in Windows. (It was originally assigned as Drive Letter "G")

Have uninstalled the Maxtor, re-installed, re-booted about 5 times,
but Windows still doesn't see it anymore.
I never ever touched the drive...but the printer somehow affected it.

Anyone here know where to start looking?
(PS: The Maxtor is still listed in the Device Manager)

thanks in avance!

-me-

 

Guess I should have mentioned, that I am running Windows 2000 as an
OS.

Forgot that.

 

Ouch..my disk manager doesn't seem to be up to snuff either.
(although i'm anything but a newbie...i'm not all that familiar with
disk management)
My first attempt to check out DM, under "storage" the folder beneath
it isn't labeled. strange. when trying to open it got the following
error:
"Runtime error!
C:.winnt\system32\mmc.exe

R6025
-pure virtual function call"

and it crashed.

2nd attempt, didn't "error", but something isn't right.
if i right-click on any of the drives, i can't see what the options
are. the dialogs are all blank.
(I assume the top option is "open" because it opened my internal
drives, but when i tried it on the Maxtor, nothing happened.
I'm also assuming the bottom option is "help" but I have no idea what
the middle options are.)

The Maxtor drive indicates the amount of data on the drive, but
nothing else.

(I did check the Maxtor website, and saw their graphics on what I
should see in Disk Management, but mine don't look like that.
The word "healthy" doesn't appear anywhere on any of my drives.)

Now i'm getting nervous....

(Maxtor makes a big deal about how you just plug this thing in, and it
appears on your desktop. That's what happened when I first installed
it last year. I'm befuddled why I can't just do that now.)

 

Try running checkdisk at a reboot to see if anything has become
corrupted.

Jerry

 

tis only me <> said in

Had a thought that might help you. Go to majorgeek.com and download the
newest version of the "Ultimate Boot CD.' I has a bunch of different diag
and repair programs on it. I've used it and found it to be pretty
comprehensive.

Jerry

 

If Windows isn't seeing the drive...will I still be able to run
checkdisk??

 

Well, I guess your OS is stuffed up somehow. Run sfc /scannow with your
windows cd inserted (the already existing registered drives hopefully still
work) and hope it will repair your system.
Check your harddrive ASAP after you managed to backup important data.

 

A couple of thoughts:

Have you tried to remove/uninstall the device from Device Manager and
then plug it back in and let Windows re-recognize it, or did you
uninstall it from Add/Remove Programs? Have you tried another USB
port or cable--those do go bad from time to time. And the obvious
one: Does the Maxtor drive have power?

Hope this helps.

James