Problem with External Hard Drive!! Help!!
 

I think my external hard drive has been infected by a virus and now every time I turn it on and try to access it, it won't let me.The hard drive icon doesn't even appear and it seems my computer don't even recognized the hardware now.How can I fix this, anyone please, Thanks!! :(:(:(

1. Check if "Disk Management" even detects the disk. Go to My Computer, right-click and select "Manage." Expand the "Storage" tree and select "Disk Management." Look to see if your hard disk is even being mounted. If it is being detected but now allowing you to access it, simply find the hard drive right-click "Change Driver Letters and path" and give it a drive letter.

2. Providing your system can boot up a USB drive, you can use "Hiren's BootCD" and use the virusscan that is provided. Please go here http://www.9down.com/Hiren-s-BootCD-9-2-14520/ and you can download it. Here is a list of software provided with the BootCD - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/hiren.thanki/bootcd.html . You should be able to use the antivirus tools that come with the CD to clean out the hard disk.

When you connect the external hard disk to your computer, does it even get recognized by the computer? Or does the virus scan come up and reject the disk because of the virus on the hard disk? You can check to see if the device is even connecting by going to your System Tray and clicking on the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon to check.

Can I use Hiren's BootCD without loosing any data on the drive if that is what I need to do? And Thanks!! :):):)

You can. It is a bootable CD. Simply download the file and burn it (the .iso) to a disk. Restart your computer with the CD in the CD-drive and it should boot up. If not, then you will have to go into your BIOS and change the "Boot order" so that the CD-Rom boots before your hard disk. The Bootable image will not destroy your hard disk unless you select a program that formats the disk. :)

Well the drive is showing up on the "Safely Remove Hardware" window, but it's not showing up on my computer.

Did you check the "Disk Management" to see if it has a drive letter?

The hard drive doesn't show up in the Disk Management. I'll try the BootCD to see if it works

Well, you could try and remove the device from "Safely Remove Hardware." You could try a different USB(?) port to see if it gets recognized.

Well it seems I have a little peoblem, can you tell me how I can boot up the PC using the CD-drive, Thanks!!!:):):)

You can boot from a cd drive either by entering the bios and change the booting order, or entering the boot menu and select the drive, but i don't think that all mainboard support this feature.

Can you be more specific in details as to how to do it, I'm not to computer savvy. Thanks!!!:)

It depends on your system, when you're booting up your system, there should be a notice telling you how to enter the BIOS, or SETUP. Most cases it is either hitting the "Del" button, F2, or some other F-keys. Same with the boot menu, probably something like F10, F11 or F12.

Exactly... You might see something like "press X to go into System Setup" right at the first screen you see before loading into Windows. Sometimes this can be a bit quick, you could create a keyboard error by mashing on the keyboard during POST (system startup).

I wonder if the drive's insides are seated properly? I had an external drive that would when turned on have windows dectect that something had been plugged in, but would deny access to the actual drive. And it was caused because the IDE cable inside the enclosure wasn't properly attached or had come loose resulting in a poor connection.

That is a definite possibility. Let's wait to see what the OP says on the next post.

Sometimes the USB cables are broken because of bending them too many times and such stuff...

Yes, I suppose that is another possibility for error. USB is convenient, but has a whole list of problems that come with convenience!