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    Ext. HDD not working correctly

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Meetloaf13, Aug 17, 2008.

  1. Meetloaf13

    Meetloaf13 fear the MONKEY!!!

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    Hey friends,

    I have a 2.5 HDD that I have in an enclosure. I used it to install an "other" OS on it as an experiment. I have since reformatted it to NTFS w/ gParted. I was unable to access it in Vista, although the "safely remove" icon showed up in my taskbar...however in "Disk Management" it was not visible.

    So, I went back into Ubuntu and reformatted it to FAT32...I can access it just fine in Ubuntu.

    I just booted Vista, and I am unable to access the drive...however it does show up in Vista in the "Disk Management" console but only as a 2MB disk with zero partitions (it is a 120GB drive).

    Any clues what's wrong?

    P.S. before I reformatted it the first time I forgot I had an OS installed on it, and so I plugged it into an XP laptop and it said the USB hub surged...not sure if this should matter though, since the drive & enclosure were in working order in Ubuntu.
     
    Meetloaf13, Aug 17, 2008
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  2. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    The USB HDD is either drawing or demanding too much power.

    Tried formatting the external HDD in disk management..??
     
    Andy, Aug 17, 2008
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  3. Meetloaf13

    Meetloaf13 fear the MONKEY!!!

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    ...it wouldn't let me format it in disk management...it just shows up as a 2MB disk, and I am unable to do anything to it.

    Why will it work just fine in Ubuntu but not VIsta?

    Also, I can get the drive to appear in Disk Management in XP, but I am unable to assign it a drive letter or access it. It says that the partition (only one on the drive) is a GPT Protective partition...not sure what that is at the moment.

    Thanks for the help.

    P.S. when I right click on the drive, it will not allow me to convert the disk to a "Dynamic Disk", it is greyed out.
     
    Meetloaf13, Aug 17, 2008
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  4. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    In vista disk management, right-click on the GPT disk, and see if it gives an option to convert it to MBR.

    GPT - 32-bit OSes which cannot read GPT disks nevertheless recognize this ID and present the disk as an inaccessible GPT disk.
     
    Andy, Aug 17, 2008
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  5. Meetloaf13

    Meetloaf13 fear the MONKEY!!!

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    Hey, thanks for the help Andy.

    I wasn't able to use any GUIs to fix the problem, but I was able to brute-force format it in XP using "diskpart" in the Command Prompt.

    I was scared that surge fried my drive!

    Ciao

    P.S. Boo on the rep system, can't give you some love at the moment.
     
    Meetloaf13, Aug 17, 2008
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