Unable to EXT HD after tryng to change format

mfhjr · #1 November 4th, 2009, 07:12 PM

Unable to SEE my EXT HD.

I hoping someone could help me with my external hard drive. I switched ISP to Qwest. Part of their package was "Windows Live One Care". When I first tried to follow their instructions to back up my system, the program told me that my external hard drive was FAT and that it needed to be NTFS to be compatable with the program. I was instructed to "CONVERT" the file system from FAT to NTFS and that NO data would be lost. Well I tried and lost access to my USB external hard drive which is a Western Digital 120 GB USB external drive.
I was instructed to issue the following from the XP Command Prompt:
Type Convert Drive letter : /FS:NTFS so I entered "convert G: /FS:NTFS" and that was the last time I was able to see the drive. It does not show up in Explorer, or My Computer. I do get a sound when I unplug or plug the drive into the USB port.

I have tried to uninstall and reinstall with the device manager, no luck.
Is there any way to "UNCONVERT" the FS. The drive is not reconized on any other computer.
Thank you for any help.

unclejunebug · #2 November 4th, 2009, 11:35 PM

Sounds like it didn't work properly. As far as I know there's no way to unconvert from NTFS to FAT32. I would download the Western Digital HD diagnostic from the WD site and see if that will recognize the drive. If it does, it seems you'll have to reformat.

mfhjr · #3 November 7th, 2009, 04:22 PM

Unclejunebug, I did as you suggested and downloaded the HD diagnostic tool. It does not see the Drive. I have given up on trying to save the data on the drive. My question is HOW can I format the drive if the system does not see the drive?

unclejunebug · #4 November 7th, 2009, 05:37 PM

You mentioned the drive is a Western Digitial, but what model is it? Elements? Passport? Unfortunately, if the drive is not visible to the system you won't be able to format it. It's a long shot, but have you tried the drive on another system? Or maybe a different USB port on your computer? You could try downloading their formatting utility, but chances are if the diagnostic tool didn't recognize the drive the format utility won't either.

If the drive is still not recognized on another system it points to the drive being bad in one of two ways. Since it's an external drive either the drive itself has died or the interface between the drive and USB is bad. If the drive is under warranty I suggest submitting an RMA. If it is not, and you're not worried about doing any further damage to the drive you can try removing it from the case and installing the drive internally in your machine. If the interface was the problem you should be able to see the drive with no issues, but if the drive is bad, you'll still be out of luck.