External HDD Problem!

[giyad]

So I just built a new computer and installed Vista on it. Everything was going fine, until...

I decided I wanted to connect both my old laptop and my new computer to my external 500GB harddrive. It was connected to my computer and working fine, and then I connected it to the old laptop and it just got stuck in autoplay. In the end there was a write error, my machine running Vista showed a blue screen and restarted, and my laptop restarted.

So now when I plug my external into the new computer, it doesn't appear. i went to disk management and there is nothing there! WHAT DO I DO???

When I turn on the drive it doesn't seem like there is anything wrong with it, it turns on normally, but just doesn't connect. Please help

 

[Ididmyc600]

Hang on , you connected 2 PC's to 1 single external drive ????

Not sure how if thats the case, but I think it is definately a recipe for disaster, maybe you have blown the drive controller or the caddy itself is faulty, can you remove the drive from the external enclosure and add it straight into the new PC.

Regards

 

[giyad]

Yeah I don't know what I was thinking, I just thought both PC's would be able to access the drive at the same time, so that I could easily transfer files. I guess I should have just connected the laptop to the PC, oh well we learn from our mistakes... I just hope the drive isn't damaged, i really need the contents

 

[Ididmyc600]

Hi again

Like I said remove the drive from the enclosure and see if it works Ok in the PC, if it doesnt your option is to find a scrap one and swap the boards over, if thats not possible, then its goodbye data......

For future use: you can buy an external caddy that can be connected to a network via RJ45 cable and then it can be accessed by 1 or more PC's.

Regards

 

[giyad]

As they say, time heals all wounds hehe... I downloaded a couple of windows updates which might have done the trick, but I came back after a few hours and restarted my computer and now the HDD works fine...

Im going to be sure to back it up, but its working

 

[nickc]

well be sure and backup every thing on it before doing anything else on it.