Windows XP forum: External Hard Drive file system corrupt and unreadable

Bob, does it make a difference whether you run CHKDSK from the command line or from right-clicking properties/tools/error checking on the drive?

LOL... once you try one, doesn't it negate the effects of trying the other? Why do you prefer command line, anyway? Just trying to learn the pro's & con's.

Didn't have time to mess with taking the drive out of the external case and putting it in the computer as a slave drive, so the CHKDSK wouldn't work on it. (I tried both methods, command prompt and error checking tools.) Decided to purchase GetDataBack and it worked very well. Reformatted external and put back the data, and it seems to be running as well as before.

A related question: sometimes this drive is difficult to remove -- when clicking on the ''Safely Remove Hardware'' icon on the taskbar, it says, ''Problem ejecting USB device; cannot stop generic volume'' and this is when I can't find any programs or open windows that might be trying to access it. Why would this happen, and in this case, if I really want to shut the drive off, is it safe to shut down windows completely and turn the drive off before rebooting? And what about if I reboot rather than shut down -- can I then shut off the drive before windows restarts?

and right before it reboots? And how do I go about finding motherboard drivers? By the way, this doesn't happen ALL the time, just too often for convenience's sake.

Sorry to keep bothering you, but I am having no luck googling this on my own, I am going in circles. The instruction booklet says that no drivers are needed with this device for Windows XP. There is a driver CD enclosed, but I can't seem to run any of the executables... I double-click them and nothing happens.

It would be quite a shame if I couldn't use Firewire since I will need to go get another USB hub. Which, by the way, this problem ejecting has happened when connected with either Firewire, or USB. Just thought it might be useful to mention that. Also, the drive itself is a Maxtor, 160G, if that helps.

This external hard drive enclosure comes with both firewire and usb connections. You are supposed to put a hard disk into it. What on earth prompted that "aha" response from you? Is it so wrong to use firewire on a hard disk if the enclosure was made for it? Please explain where you are coming from. And exactly what lesson you learned. I am just trying to understand what you are talking about.

I understand what you are saying and I will take your advice and keep it exclusively to USB. But my original problem still stands, that sometimes, even when I was on the USB connection, I had this problem ejecting the device. I am not sure exactly which drivers I am supposed to be looking for... for the external case? For the Maxtor hard disk? I thought that with XP I didn't need drivers.

Everything was installed already when I got the computer, and the only disk that it came with has the xp rescue that will reformat the os if I put it in. I am not having trouble getting the hard drive to work, it works fine. The only problem I am having is that sometimes it refuses to allow removal when I click on the taskbar remove hardware icon, even if no programs are accessing it, and Bob had suggested a driver update.

I guess you didn't follow the thread through to the end before you posted. I managed to salvage the data with GetDataBack, reformatted the drive, put back the data, and it's been working fine, except for the problem that probably caused the corruption in the first place: sometimes it is difficult to eject or remove the volume from the taskbar, and I may have inadvertently turned it off without permission. As to eMachines website not having driver downloads, I found one there. It was hiding in tech support, and you have to choose from drop-down menus for your machine. My question was still whether or not I really needed to update it, since it seems I already have that driver installed.

As to what drivers, it is the "motherboard drivers." Widely discussed at http://www.usbman.com not only the drivers are noted but workarounds for issues with some USB chipsets.

-> Please bear in mind I will not duplicate USBMAN's web content since it's there for us to read and I have to abide by the forum rules. The content is pretty deep and again, in recap:

a. Get your latest motherboard drivers.
b. Review USBMAN for possible issues about the chipset used in your machine.
c. If you ever connected with firewire, it's never clear if some filesystem damage occured.

I forgot one item along the way or we didn't get to it. Windows XP SP1 is not good enough with USB drives over 127GB. Microsoft apparently slipped in a patch in SP2 that is not available to XP SP1 owners. If you have not applied SP2 then that's yet another reason for the troubles.

Best of luck,

Bob

I went to usbman and didn't know what I was looking for. So I guessed that I should check for clues in the device manager on my computer. Under Computer, it says ACPI Uniprocessor PC. Under system devices, it listed Microsoft System Management BIOS driver. So I went back to usbman and clicked on Microsoft in the alphabetical list for driver updates, and it just sent me to the Microsoft site, where I ran around in circles. So I went back to the device manager and clicked on properties on the Microsoft System Management BIOS driver and clicked on "update driver." I had Windows search the internet and it came back telling me there are no more appropriate drivers than the one I have. Is there nothing more I can do? And did I even take the right steps so far? I am still such a newbie in so many of these issues.

I must be REALLY REALLY stupid, because I am still going around in circles. According to this Everest program, my chipset has Device Description
North Bridge: nVIDIA nForce2 IGP, revision A2,and also Device Description South Bridge: nVIDIA MCP2-T, revision A4. I couldn't find anything related to that on usbman, but I went on the eMachines site and went to the download page for T3092, and they had this driver available for download: Motherboard driver nVidia MCP2 Driver Set version 3.77. I downloaded it, but can't figure out whether this is the version I have, or a newer version. Would it do any harm to install it ''again'' over the one I have, if it is the same version? *whine* Am I almost there yet?

So did I understand you correctly, that I already have the most recent driver and don't need to re-install what I've downloaded? This still doesn't give me ideas for change, since I've been using the 2.0 hub anyway. But at least I've been made aware that there was a problem. Now what?