"Drive not Ready" - Please help !!!!

[hiarpita]

I have been trying to connect my external hard drive to my laptop, but it shows the following every time:

"Windows - Drive not ready

The drive is not ready for use; its door may be open. Please check drive \device\harddisk\DR5 and make sure that a disk is inserted and that the drive door is closed."

It started suddenly...I have no idea what to do with it. I tried the windows troubleshooting, but with no result.

Can anyone please help me how to correct the problem? Please let me know if you need more information on the problem.

Thanks in anticipation,

Arpita.

 

[raybay]

Usually the external drive comes packaged with an install disc that is used to format the drive. The drive is not usable until it is formatted and setup for use. If you did not receive one, the software is available by download from the manufacturers web site.
However, on drives received via package express or the postal people, any strong impact can ruin the drive and cause the error message you describe.

 

[hiarpita]

no installation

Hi,

Thanks for your response. Well, the hard drive was sort of 'plug-n-play'. I did not have to install it. Besides it was working fine for the past couple of months. Somebody gave me that drive and I was using it with no problem. That error message has started to appear only since the last couple of days.

Is there any way to correct it?

Arpita.

 

[G Ray88]

Might try checking to be sure that everything is connect in the external drive case. Have you tried to connect it to a different computer? Has the drive been dropped?
Good Luck

 

[mikescorpio81]

Can you see your HDD through Computer Management - Disk Management?