can't access external hard drive

jumanji said:

That's great ! Please mark the thread as solved.
Note: I may have to say that your drive is still not the right way it should be. It got mucked up because you "Rebuilt MBR"?? using AOMEI Partition Assistant. "I installed and ran AOEMI Partition Assistant, and rebuilt the MBR - nothing seemed to happen, " - your post #5. But it did change the start sector of the main partition from 32678 t0 2048.

I don't know anything about changing the start sector - I was just following instructions provided in this thread, as one is supposed to when requesting help...

Please check the integrity of your backups in that drive.. If it is all ok,you should copy all the folders/backups to another drive and then format this drive as an MBR drive after a cleanup. That should clear the mixup. You may then copy all your folders back into this drive if you want.

I did check to ensure my files are all there last night. I made a 2nd backup (to flash drives) a couple of days before this one, as I knew that computer was going away, so if I have to lose the data that's on there, that's fine - I can make a fresh backup from my new laptop. The important thing is that the drive is working again. The mystery is why it functioned on my old laptop but not the new one.

I can format the drive this morning before work, however I seldom use partition assistants, so should I run into trouble, I may post back to this thread for assistance. Once everything is complete and the issue is fully resolved, I'll mark the thread as solved. Thank you for all your help!

- - - Updated - - -

Bad news. When I connected the drive this morning it doesn't show up at all. Not in Win Exp, not in Disk Mgt, Not in Partition Wizard or AOEMI, and it cannot be safely removed. I can, however, feel the disk running.

How do I access it now???

That is bad luck. I am afraid that the disk had a catastrophic failure. If it does not show anywhere, nothing can be done.

It could also be a failure of the electronics inside the enclosure. You can put the HDD in another working enclosure and check. if it doesn't show up still, end of the story.

I have a new enclosure arriving tomorrow for the HDD I just took out of my old computer, so I'll try that & let you know.

I hope the new enclosure comes with its own cable. If not use a different cable. There are only three things one can do to troubleshoot the problem.

1. Use a different cable 2. Use a different working enclosure. 3. Directly connect your drve inside a desktop.

The third one is the best option to determine whether the disk has indeed failed.

Keep us posted. Needless to say I was totally upset to know that after your drive became accessible, it again turned inacessible overnight. Just can't imagine such a thing happening. I had never before encountered such a reported failure after a successful recovery.

That's funny... I know I replied to this earlier today - where did it go?

It was the enclosure, which had an adapter so it could be plugged in USB->USB. The new enclosure is direct.
@jumanji, thank you for suggesting I try another enclosure. I would not have thought of that, and until the moment the laptop read the disk, I didn't believe it was the answer.

I've ordered another enclosure of the same type for the HDD I just salvaged. No questions as to what's inside, because it's a clear case.

Thanks for helping me get this sorted out. I appreciate you hanging in there until the issue was resolved. :)

@3point1
Glad that the problem is sorted out.

Which is the new enclosure? Can you please post the listing page from which you ordered? Is it a ORICO?

it's a clear case that slides open & closed - sweet! Made by Sabrent, purchased from Amazon.

This???

Yes