External hard drive won't show up...

**H Con** · March 04, 2012, 05:36 PM

My Samsung S2 Portable 1TB hard drive suddenly doesn't appear anywhere on my computer. Not in Explorer, not in Device Manager, not in Disk Management, not in Seatools, not in any disk diagnostic tool I've tried. The drive makes no weird noises (of course, it makes sounds, but it's just the sound of the drive spinning), and the power indicator clearly shows that it gets power.

It simply refuses to appear. I've tried every single USB port on my computer, it works on neither.

Is it dead? It worked fine just three days ago, when I turned off my computer and unplugged it. Haven't used it from then until I tried using it now.

**Ybbon** · March 05, 2012, 09:50 AM

Do you have another PC to try it on? Have you rebooted you machine with the connected and disconnected?

**H Con** · March 05, 2012, 10:49 AM

Originally Posted by ybbon66

Do you have another PC to try it on? Have you rebooted you machine with the connected and disconnected?

I've tried rebooting it, with the drive both connected and disconnected, no changes. There are no other computers nearby.

**Squid** · March 05, 2012, 10:53 AM

Make sure you don't have it trying to use a drive letter held by another drive. This is a common reason for USB sticks, portable hardddrives, network drives, etc for not showing up. To check this have the drive plugged in and go to Control Panel -> Admin Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management, if the drive is working properly but not showing up you'll see it in your volume listing without a drive letter. Change the drive letter to something that isn't used and it should appear.

**Zhangir** · August 26, 2012, 05:28 PM

Hi, so does your S2 Portable work? I have exactly the same problem
Does anyone have any solutions?

**irishron** · August 26, 2012, 06:10 PM

What is your tranfer rate and buffer size? If it's slower than the 5400rpm drives in laptops, it could be too slow for S2.

**Zhangir** · August 26, 2012, 06:42 PM

I don't know how to find the rate and buffer size, but see the thing is - everything worked just fine before, just now I can't find my Hard Drive anywhere, not in the My computer part, not in Disc Management, not anywhere :/
So I am guessing I can't find the transfer rate and buffer size either?

**irishron** · August 26, 2012, 07:01 PM

If it's USB Plug and Play, it should show up as soon as you plug it in unless it took a dump. Do you have access to another computer to plug it into?
One other in S2 Tech was having trouble playing the game from his external after last rash of updates.

**Zhangir** · August 26, 2012, 07:15 PM

Issue Solved!

Thanks for your aassitance irishron, but the key was - hitting it.

From here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...8-e82e7415263a

they said, hit it on the side and a couple of people had it work.
Now, believe me or not, I just sat there hitting the poor Hard Drive for 15 minutes, and it made a pitiful and pathetic sound, but it works!

True magic! I've never thought you could ACTUALLY fix stuff by hitting it!