transcend storejet portable drive is not connecting although it shows on list of devices

Hi,

1) Do you remember any changes prior to the issue?
2) Did you try connecting the drive to a different port and check?

3) Do you see any yellow bangs in device manager ? Anything unusual?

If the drives are powered by the USB bus and do not have their own external power supplies the problem is that the laptop is not supplying sufficient USB power to drive both.

Method 1: Hardware devices are not working or are not detected in Windows

http://support.microsoft.com/mats/hardware_device_problems/

Method 2: Reinstall drivers for the external hard drive.

a) Plug in the External Hard Disk.

b) Shut down the computer completely and remove the plug from the wall.

c) Wait for a minute before you plug it back and start the computer normally.

d) Once you get to the desktop check if you are able to access the Hard Disk.

tried all your suggestions.... nothing worked.

I cant understand why i can see it in devices and it comes and goes as i unplug and reconnect it but i cant access it through "my computer".

The device is obviously recognised but not accessible.

In answer to your questions

1) No

2) tried it but no joy... even tried a different laptop.. no joy

3) no.

I have emailed the manufacturer but they have not responded yet... this is the second drive of that type that has failed in the same way. It is a Transcend Storejet 500GB drive and when it works it is great but i am getting fed up now as i have no confidence left in the product.

I lost all my music and piccies the last time (backed up this time) so what is the point of having an external portable drive if you cant trust it.

Sorry for the rant .... any other suggestions ??

Hi,

Thank you for the reply.

Could you check the portable drive on a different computer?

Hi Abdul, Thanks for your efforts but I have already tried that with the same result.

I am at a loss so I have contacted the manufacturer to see what they suggest. They told me to just send it back for a replacement but I am determined to fight for them to supply some sort of data retreival from the drive as this is the second time in two years that this has happened. This is the replacement drive they sent me last April so i am NOT a happy custormer.

They seem to think the drive is goosed and only a replacement will do. I do not want to lose all the data on it so i am looking at ways to get retreival.

Thanks again

The symptoms sound as though the device is connecting but it has lost just the ability to get a drive letter assigned [one of my external drives has this problem but otherwise works well].

To assign a drive letter, use Computer management:-

0  Connect the errant drive

1  Type manage in the Start menu search box, right-click on the Computer management shortcut that is offered & select Run as Admin.  You will then need to enter an Admin account name & password.

2  In the window that appears after a few seconds pause, select Disk management.

3  Look at the list of disks-partitions to positively identify the drive concerned.  It may be the only one that has no drive letter assigned but may not be [you might, for example, have a recovery partition or some other vital partition that does not need a drive letter for its operation].  The list & the illustrations underneath show you many properties of the drives so you should be able to identify it.

4  Only when you have positively identified the correct drive, right-click on it & select Change drive letter & paths... and then click on Add...

5  Next to the entry Assign the following drive letter, the system will offer you the next unused drive letter.  You can choose any drive letter from the dropdown list.  Choose one you do not use for anything else as this solution should hold for all future use and you don't want to have a clash with any other devices.

6  Press OK, OK then close the Computer management window.  The system will warn you that this will disrupt any current processes that refer to that drive [but there will be none that matter as the drive had nothing assigned before].

Please note that this solution should hold permanently [including after rebooting] but I find that some drives can lose the drive letter assignment after operations like formatting or after use in certain other machines.  My problem drive needs to be re-assigned every time I connect it but all the others just needed to be set up once.

Tim,

I have never seen this but the message implies that the connection to the drive is intermittent [i.e. it's disconnecting then reconnecting in the time it takes you to get from Refresh to the drive letter allocation dialog].

I'd suggest checking the cables & the connections for any visible damage.  If they seem to be okay then try a different USB socket.  If it's still a problem then try updating / reinstalling the device driver from Device Manager. 

You could also try disconnecting all other devices first [before running the console] just in case it's something else that is causing the problem during that time interval.  I did once have a problem with the console caused by my removal of another device while it was open but it sorted itself out quite quickly.

Otherwise, try connecting the drive to another PC to check the problem is only with your current PC.

If it remains a problem then post a separate question, "Disk management console constantly demands Refresh", to get better help than I am able to offer.

All the best,