Windows 10: Lost E: data drive

I have a laptop with dual drives, an SSD that runs the windows and other programs, and a data drive for my data. Recently the data drive became "unavailable" and a big blue questionmark appears above it in file explorer. Tried restoring windows 10 on the laptop but its still unavailable. Any fixes?


Phil


*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

*** Email address is removed for privacy ***

:)

 

Lost data from hard drive, what to do now?

Well, I'm sorry to hear that it's a WD My Passport that failed on you, @tomhenry ! *Frown
I'd recommend you to try using a different USB cable with it and see if that will help your system to detect it without it disconnecting.
I'd also suggest you to go to Disk Management and see how the drive is listed there. It won't hurt to check up on the health and SMART status of the HDD by running the QUICK and EXTENDED tests from the WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics. Here's a link to the available software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=11ZOpD

Give these troubleshooting steps a try and keep us posted with the results!
SuperSoph_WD

 

My data folders (Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, etc) are on DRIVE E: not Drive C:

I THINK the programs are looking in the wrong place.

All my Programs are stored on Drive C:

Drive D: is my Recovery Image

Drive E: is where all my Data files were stored (Documents-Pictures-Videos, etc).

Drive F: has: Clipart-Document Themes 14-Media-MSOCache-Office 14 - Stationery - and Templates.

Hewlett Packard set my computer system up.

Before I did what you suggested above about MOVING files - I had only one listing for Drive EDATADRIVE1-Docs-Pics-Video-Music). Now Drive E: shows up listed under THIS PC as E:\ (and it contains ALL my data - docs-Pics-Video-Music)). All these data
folders also show up listed under THIS PC in the DOCUMENT folder; AND, all the datat folders also show up in DATADRIVE1-Docs-Pixs-Music-Video!!!! Whatever happened when I moved the files caused them to appear in several places!

I don't think the programs know where to find anything!!!! DUD!

I also have 4 external Western Digital hard drives (but I don't have all of them plugged in simultaneously). My problem with the external hard drives is that now Windows does recognize my 6 TB one - I know it is working because the little light is on and
blinking....the drive just does not show up in File Explorer.

Do you have any suggestions?

 

My data folders (Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, etc) are on DRIVE E: not Drive C:

Patti,

Let me start by saying the above information would have been very useful at the start. Let me see if I can recap your original issue first...

Before Windows 10 Upgrade:

Your computer was configured (before the Win10 upgrade) to used drive (E as your DEFAULT storage location for DOCUMENTS, PICTURES, MUSIC etc. I assume there were sub-folders for each.

After Windows 10 Upgrade:

After the upgrade, your DEFAULT storage locations were re-set to drive C:. This had the side affect of you seeing 'Documents' in the quick access list which did not point to your 'Documents' folder on drive E:.

What you wanted:

You wanted the 'Documents' and other data folders that showed up in the Quick Access list to point to your original files on drive E:. You also assumed that all new documents would be created in the Documents folder on drive E:.

Drive E: is your data drive because that is where you have space and you want to continue using that drive.

In the above description I used 'Documents' but that would apply to all of your 'data' folders such as Music, Video, Pictures etc.

If I have this right, please let me know.