Windows 10: External hard drive is inaccessible

I have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 2TB USB 3.0 external hard drive that I use to store (majority) videos and documents. A few days ago it started giving me this error for every folder and file, and eventually just from trying to access the hard drive itself from This PC:




And this is what shows up in Device Manager:






In Disk Management, this is what shows up at first (first image) and then when I refresh Disk Management through Action > Refresh (second image):






As for specifications wise, I clean installed to Windows 10 Pro N x64 (a day after this error came up when I plugged in the hard drive, actually... Not sure what I was thinking at the time) with what I think are updated drivers for my hardware from the manufacturer's websites. Previously, it was a clean installation of Windows 10 Pro x64 after upgrading from Windows 8.1 Pro x64.

Not sure if this is worth mentioning, but, all my folders and files show up when the computer actually can read the hard drive, I just can't open any of them. I've never had to deal with hardware problems before, so, if I'm missing something incredibly simple, please point me in the right direction. I really don't want to lose the files in that hard drive, as I'm not able to make a backup even if it was working (with it being my biggest external to date).

P.S. > Not sure if it helps, but, this is what the hard drive shows on Speccy at a glance:




(Is the serial number and firmware version supposed to be the same on all hard drives? )


:)

 

My external hard drive

My external Hard drive which was connected with Wundows7 is inaccessible with Windows10 - neither will it reformat

 

Inaccessible External Hard Drive

Hello,

Try to assign drive letter for external drive and check if that helps in resolving the issue.

• On the desktop, press Windows Key + R to bring up the Run Window
• In the Run Window, type diskmgmt.msc to bring up the disk management console.
• Right-click on the entry for the external drive to open the Drive menu.
• Click “Change Drive Letters and Paths” to open the "Change Drive Letter and Paths" dialog box.
• Click the “Change” button to display a second dialog box.
• Click the “Assign the Following Drive Letter” radio button, and then click the corresponding drop-down box to view available drive letters
• Click the desired drive letter to assign to the external drive, and then click “OK.” A warning message displays.

Hope the information provided helps you in resolving the issue.

Thank you.

 

I had a 3TB once with same symptom. I am afraid that the disk is going to be dead soon.
Download: CrystalDiskInfo6_3_2.zip - CrystalDiskInfo - SourceForge.JP Unzip and run to check the disk health. If it reports a lot of bad sectors then you can be sure it's going to get worse.
External HD is not really designed for constant use. The enclosure does not have enough airflow to keep it cool and usually goes bad within 2-3 years.

 

Thank you for replying, topgun. I downloaded it and it's showing as running in the Task Manager as a background process, so we'll see how it goes. I guess I should keep to internal hard drives next time, then? The external was bought back in November, so almost a year old only. (=_=; )

 

No. It's not a background process. It should show you a screen as shown below:

 

Say, is this supposed to happen? I plugged in the hard drive again to see if Crystal Disk Info can find it this time, but, this shows up in Disk Management:




And yeah, I see what you mean. It showed up finally, after about 10 minutes of being a background process.

EDIT > Try #2, program can't seem to find the external hard drive. Not sure what to do at this point.




The only hard drive it's picking up is my internal hard drive.

 

From disk management. I saw something strange that you have a 1MB unallocated partition. Not sure how comfortable you are by taking the disk out of the enclosure and connect directly to one of the sata port in your PC. Sometimes the USB interface could be defective too since the disk is recognized by Disk Management but not from the Crystal Disk.

 

I did think about taking it out and sticking in the extra hard drive slot and see if I can access the hard drive that way, but, I haven't found any spot on the external where I can pry it open (having never needing to do so before). That, and I think I read somewhere on these forums that if I take it out of the enclosure, the hard drive becomes completely inaccessible thereafter because of some encryption done by Seagate at the USB port connector thingie??

EDIT > I found a YouTube video on how to open it, but, I'm not sure if I should because of the reason above. Is it "safe" to take it out of the enclosure?

 

Yes it is safe to take it out of the enclosure and connect directly to the Sata port. I had the same Model as yours except it was 3TB and that what I did to retrieve my data before I took it back to Cosco and returned it. I also think you should be able to RMA with Seagate if bought within 3 Years.

 

You can take the drive out but since there are no screws, you may have to break the enclosure open. Careful not to hit the drive and damage it further. Then if connecting it on the computer you can access it, backup all your data. Unfortunately external drives have only 1 year warranty. You can visit Seagate's site, go to RMA section and then check the serial, but I'm afraid it has expired. Needless to say that as long as you remove the case the warranty is void anyway. I would keep it for temporary file transfer. That is I would not trust files for long term, but I would copy some files to transfer to another computer and then delete them. Don't trust it as backup drive, it can die any moment!

 

Thanks for all the responses. There's just one kink: my computer is a laptop, like I stated in my system specs. And my hard drive bay is, naturally, underneath all the battery and good stuff. How am I supposed to connect this seemingly 3.5" hard drive to my laptop to test??? Silly me thought that the hard drive was 2.5"... when it was an external. Go figure. *Sad

 

SeaTools | Seagate

 

Thanks, but, that was the first thing I tried.. And it was useless. It can't even find the hard drive. Just like how Crystal Disk Info can't find the hard drive in question when Disk Management can, as my screenshots have shown.

 

No sweat! You can ask a friend with a desktop computer to connect it and test it there. Or you could borrow a 3.5" SATA USB enclosure. There is also an IDE/SATA to USB adapter, so you don't need an enclosure. With a tool like that I can test any 2.5" or 3.5" IDE/SATA drive, or connect it to backup data. If you cannot borrow one, you may ask a computer shop to test your drive. I hope they won't charge you much, but maybe the charge is comparable to buying a USB enclosure. The choice is yours. If you think the disk might work, buy the enclosure to use it afterwards.