So, my mom accidentally removed the drive letter of our external backup drive while trying to eject it in Disk Manager, thinking she was just unplugging it. Now, it's not showing up on any computer at all, not even in Disk Management or Diskpart. There isn't even a light on the drive. I've looked up all sorts of solutions online, like running "sfc /scannow" and "chkdsk /r", but nothing is working, and I feel a bit lost here. Is there any way to fix this drive so we can use it again, or should I just accept that it's dead and buy a new one? We mostly use it for File History backups, but luckily, most important stuff is on OneDrive, so it's not a total disaster if we can't recover it.
5 Answers
Have you checked Device Manager? Sometimes drives can show up there as disabled. If it doesn't appear at all, then it could be a more serious problem with the drive.
Removing the drive letter shouldn't impact visibility across different PCs as it's just a setting on your local OS. I suggest checking all connections first. Inspect the USB ports for any bent pins and ensure the cable is secure. If it doesn't show up in Disk Management, it sounds like a hardware issue.
If all else fails, try booting up a Linux distro. It can sometimes detect drives that Windows doesn’t see. There’s a possibility she might have deleted partitions accidentally, which Linux might help you identify.
You should try going back into Disk Management and assign the drive letter again. Sometimes if the drive was forcefully disconnected, the file system can get corrupted. I had to reformat my drive once when I had a similar issue, which seemed like it was dead at first, but the SMART data showed it was still functioning.
I get what you're saying about tech-savvy older people! But honestly, it sounds like the drive has likely failed. If troubleshooting doesn’t work, it might be time to get a new one.
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