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Maxtor 3000LS Disappeared after WinXP SP2 Installation
I have a Maxtor 3000LS 40GB external hard drive that is no longer being recognized by Windows XP. The problem started after I installed the XP SP2 onto my Sony PC.
Initially, I received "Semaphore Time-Out" errors. I could, at that point, unplug the drive from one USB port and plug it into another...and the OS would then recognize the external drive. That worked until I exhausted all the USB ports - and now the OS will no longer recognize the drive, at all. Albeit, the Semaphore Time-Out errors quit on their own.
I have tested and replaced all cables. I have taken off all other USB devices, external devices, and USB Hubs. That makes no difference.
I have searched for new drivers for the Maxtor 3000LS, no luck there.
The drive shows under the icon to "safely remove hardware." However, the drive will not show when I go to My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management.
I can plug other USB devices into any of the USB ports on the Sony PC...and all works well. Just the Maxtor is no no longer "fully" recognized on this machine post XP SP2, on any port.
I have plugged the Maxtor drive into my ThinkPad, and it works just fine and is recognized: No errors.
Net: The Sony PC will no longer assign a directory letter to the Maxtor 3000LS, and the 3000LS 40GB external hard drive remains no longer "fully" recognized by Windows XP on this PC. The drive shows under the icon to "safely remove hardware." However, the drive will not show when I go to My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management.
Clearly - this is the fallout of installing XP SP2. I just can't figure out what, exactly, to do to solve it.
Any ideas?
Initially, I received "Semaphore Time-Out" errors. I could, at that point, unplug the drive from one USB port and plug it into another...and the OS would then recognize the external drive. That worked until I exhausted all the USB ports - and now the OS will no longer recognize the drive, at all. Albeit, the Semaphore Time-Out errors quit on their own.
I have tested and replaced all cables. I have taken off all other USB devices, external devices, and USB Hubs. That makes no difference.
I have searched for new drivers for the Maxtor 3000LS, no luck there.
The drive shows under the icon to "safely remove hardware." However, the drive will not show when I go to My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management.
I can plug other USB devices into any of the USB ports on the Sony PC...and all works well. Just the Maxtor is no no longer "fully" recognized on this machine post XP SP2, on any port.
I have plugged the Maxtor drive into my ThinkPad, and it works just fine and is recognized: No errors.
Net: The Sony PC will no longer assign a directory letter to the Maxtor 3000LS, and the 3000LS 40GB external hard drive remains no longer "fully" recognized by Windows XP on this PC. The drive shows under the icon to "safely remove hardware." However, the drive will not show when I go to My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management.
Clearly - this is the fallout of installing XP SP2. I just can't figure out what, exactly, to do to solve it.
Any ideas?
PUNKY
Use System Restore on date before installed XP SP2, see if Sony still can detect the drive and functioning.
ASKER
I tried System Restore; however to my surprise, the dates were not available prior to the install of XP SP2. All dates were cleared out and the next valid date started post XP SP2 install. Needless to say, that was a frustrating discovery.
Still looking for thoughts.
This being the fallout of installing XP SP2...I am hoping that someone might have expertise relative to the comprehensive nature of the service pack, who might be able to shed light on the cause.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Still looking for thoughts.
This being the fallout of installing XP SP2...I am hoping that someone might have expertise relative to the comprehensive nature of the service pack, who might be able to shed light on the cause.
Anyone have any other ideas?
Open regedit, then navigate to the following
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
And delete all the devices that could be USB devices in the
\DosDevices\
list
Then reboot and retry.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
And delete all the devices that could be USB devices in the
\DosDevices\
list
Then reboot and retry.
ASKER
Well...while that did not solve the problem...it has at least brought this issue to some sense of closure: Albeit worse than when it started.
I backed up the registry. I edited 4 lines relative to USB, inclusive of that which targeted the key for the Maxtor drive.
Immediately, I lost all of my Sony ports for pictures: The three flash card slots disappeared. That introduces a new problem.
Pushing forward, I plugged the Maxtor back into a USB slot, and it was recognized. Thought to be good.
I restored the registry - in an attempt to now regain recognition of the now missing Sony memory card ports: Still no recognition.
I rebooted the machine, hoping the restored registry would pick up the Sony memory card ports upon reboot: No luck. The system then took the Maxtor drive through a scan...and started coming up with "Drive Not Formatted" errors. In addition, all of the Sony picture card ports remain now unrecognized.
Lots of suggestions, but apparently, no one really understands the XP SP2. Net of all this has been an exacerbation of the previous condition to now a point whereby I must attempt a Sony emergency disk recovery...and wipe out everything...trying to rollback to the date of purchase. :::sigh:::
I appreciate all the "suggestions," but I remain disappointed that no one really understands XP SP2 and can thus offer a valid cause / solution.
Thanks all - I do appreciate the effort.
I backed up the registry. I edited 4 lines relative to USB, inclusive of that which targeted the key for the Maxtor drive.
Immediately, I lost all of my Sony ports for pictures: The three flash card slots disappeared. That introduces a new problem.
Pushing forward, I plugged the Maxtor back into a USB slot, and it was recognized. Thought to be good.
I restored the registry - in an attempt to now regain recognition of the now missing Sony memory card ports: Still no recognition.
I rebooted the machine, hoping the restored registry would pick up the Sony memory card ports upon reboot: No luck. The system then took the Maxtor drive through a scan...and started coming up with "Drive Not Formatted" errors. In addition, all of the Sony picture card ports remain now unrecognized.
Lots of suggestions, but apparently, no one really understands the XP SP2. Net of all this has been an exacerbation of the previous condition to now a point whereby I must attempt a Sony emergency disk recovery...and wipe out everything...trying to rollback to the date of purchase. :::sigh:::
I appreciate all the "suggestions," but I remain disappointed that no one really understands XP SP2 and can thus offer a valid cause / solution.
Thanks all - I do appreciate the effort.
Go to device manager and look for unknown devices, or devices with yellw exclamations on them.
Delete them. then either reboot, or do a hardware re-scan; either way XP should start detecting the devices again, possibly prompting for drivers.
Note - the USB 'hub' must be functional prior to the cards etc being recognised, so check for a USBroot hub entry.
If the above doesn't work, try the deletion from safe mode (I admit I haven't done this since Win9x so it mightn't make a difference under XP. Win9x used to 'hide' stuff in device manager normal mode, and only show under safe mode. Inevitably having multiple entries for the same device caused major issues - delete, reboot, redetect and voilla)
Finally, if you know the chipset of your laptop/PC, you should try updating the drivers. This will at least cause a redetect of the USB hub, and it follow that anything plugged in will also then be re-detected. Check first with Sony for updated drivers - this may actually be the entire problem: SP2 has replaced the Sony USB driver with its own (since its newer) and Sony had some specific configs in their driver for their hardware.
If you're contemplating the restore CD, you have nothing to lose by trying these things.
Delete them. then either reboot, or do a hardware re-scan; either way XP should start detecting the devices again, possibly prompting for drivers.
Note - the USB 'hub' must be functional prior to the cards etc being recognised, so check for a USBroot hub entry.
If the above doesn't work, try the deletion from safe mode (I admit I haven't done this since Win9x so it mightn't make a difference under XP. Win9x used to 'hide' stuff in device manager normal mode, and only show under safe mode. Inevitably having multiple entries for the same device caused major issues - delete, reboot, redetect and voilla)
Finally, if you know the chipset of your laptop/PC, you should try updating the drivers. This will at least cause a redetect of the USB hub, and it follow that anything plugged in will also then be re-detected. Check first with Sony for updated drivers - this may actually be the entire problem: SP2 has replaced the Sony USB driver with its own (since its newer) and Sony had some specific configs in their driver for their hardware.
If you're contemplating the restore CD, you have nothing to lose by trying these things.
ASKER
I had tried device manager and located devices with yellw exclamations on them. I did delete them and rebooted. The system had the same condition; albeit as one would expect, the system did not prompt for new drivers.
The USB Root was functional.
I tried deleting some, then all. No change.
The drivers were fine.
The USB Hub was not the problem...as I mentioned...I had removed all. I had also valdidated the Hub via the registry.
I have been unsuccessful in locating any new or updated drivers for the Maxtor 3000LS.
I conducted a full restore of all partitions on the Sony PC, back to date of purchase. All of the Sony memory card ports showed up again. :::whew::: I plugged in the Maxtor 3000LS...and it was recognized. (Awesome!) Then when I booted up the system a second time - this time with the Maxtor drive attached - system scanned the Maxtor drive prior to allowing the system to boot. Once the system came online post scan...the OS would recognize the drive...but it would no longer read any data contained therein. I now get an error message, "Drive Not Formatted."
No good deed goes unpunished.
Having little to loose, I cracked open the USB case and pulled out the drive. I jumpered it for cable select and wired it into a spare workstation I use for testing software. The device was discovered. I could see it via My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management. I could also see the drive letter allocation via Explore. However, I could not access any of the data contained on the disk. I still got an error message, "Drive Not Formatted."
I have not given up the ghost, however. I intend to snag some disk repair software and run it against the drive.
The USB Root was functional.
I tried deleting some, then all. No change.
The drivers were fine.
The USB Hub was not the problem...as I mentioned...I had removed all. I had also valdidated the Hub via the registry.
I have been unsuccessful in locating any new or updated drivers for the Maxtor 3000LS.
I conducted a full restore of all partitions on the Sony PC, back to date of purchase. All of the Sony memory card ports showed up again. :::whew::: I plugged in the Maxtor 3000LS...and it was recognized. (Awesome!) Then when I booted up the system a second time - this time with the Maxtor drive attached - system scanned the Maxtor drive prior to allowing the system to boot. Once the system came online post scan...the OS would recognize the drive...but it would no longer read any data contained therein. I now get an error message, "Drive Not Formatted."
No good deed goes unpunished.
Having little to loose, I cracked open the USB case and pulled out the drive. I jumpered it for cable select and wired it into a spare workstation I use for testing software. The device was discovered. I could see it via My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management. I could also see the drive letter allocation via Explore. However, I could not access any of the data contained on the disk. I still got an error message, "Drive Not Formatted."
I have not given up the ghost, however. I intend to snag some disk repair software and run it against the drive.
Don't run any disk repair software, not yet. First try to recover the data using getdataback. Once you have the data recovered, try the repair software.
http://runtime.org
http://runtime.org
ASKER
getdataback?
What is that?
What is that?
The best recovery software there is. The trial you can download scans the disk for any data (can take a long time), then displays what it sees as recoverable. If the software is registered, you can then select whatever of these files are recoverable and you can copy it off to some other disk or space.
ASKER
Wow. That is an awesome suggestion. Thanks for that heads up!
I'll give that a go and let you know it turns out.
I'll give that a go and let you know it turns out.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Rindi - While that answer didn't strike at the heart of what started all this...it did bail me out of a very serious jam. That GetDataBack (GDB) software is nothing short of astonishing. You nailed it.
I loaded the GDB program on my home lab machine with the USB Drive stripped out and attached to the cable of the CDROM drive, jumpered in cable select mode. The GDB program located [all] data on that 40GB drive and brought it up for me to copy off to the healthy disk of the lab machine. I was able to recover every single piece of data.
I appreciate that you brought my attention to bear upon that solution. You were correct, other programs would have been running up against the USB Drive differently, and could have made eventual data recovery much more difficult.
Many thanks!
I loaded the GDB program on my home lab machine with the USB Drive stripped out and attached to the cable of the CDROM drive, jumpered in cable select mode. The GDB program located [all] data on that 40GB drive and brought it up for me to copy off to the healthy disk of the lab machine. I was able to recover every single piece of data.
I appreciate that you brought my attention to bear upon that solution. You were correct, other programs would have been running up against the USB Drive differently, and could have made eventual data recovery much more difficult.
Many thanks!
your welcome