PC died. Dumped it, but kept its 2 IDE hard drives.
New PC has SATA drive, but bought adaptors on eBay to use the 2 drives as backup via USB connections.
Bought Samsung smart TV which allows you to connect a hard drive via a USB connector and use it to record off-air TV. I used one of the backup drives for this. It had to be reformatted by the TV first. It worked as a recorder once or twice, but then gave up. That seems to be a common scenario with these TVs. I believe it's down to the software.
Now I want to reformat the drive to use with the PC, but the PC no longer recognises it. Has anyone any suggestions to overcome this, before I bin the drive.
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When you say that the PC no longer recognises it, what actually happens?
Is it just not showing up in Windows Explorer?
Because you will probably find that if you go into Computer Management / Disk Management that the drive will show up there.
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I've tried those options, but still no joy.
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If you can't find it in disk management, then other than checking [by swapping] your cables & adaptors, I'd say it was dead.
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>> ... I'd say it was dead.
I've got it in an old VHS library case. The heat and vibration, which I can feel, suggests that it's working.
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Its been in and out of so many machines the MBR is screwed, google " make MBR"
Can't help more at the O2 Spandau ballet is due on in 5 mins
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>> >> ... I'd say it was dead.
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>> I've got it in an old VHS library case. The heat and vibration, which I
>> can feel, suggests that it's working.
I've had many hot vibrating dead drives. With some, the hotter and vibraty they were the deader they were.
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Thankyou No FM2R and Zero.
I read up on MBR and started to try and sort it with my Win7 recovery disk. I didn't get beyond the first System Recovery Option because there was no mouse pointer onscreen. I decided to swap data connectors with the other backup drive and then I was able to see the problem drive in Computer Management/Disk Management. After a complicated rigmarole, which I can't remember, I eventually reformatted the drive and everything is hunky dory.
The problem is the connectors on the adaptors. They've always been a bit spasmodic, even the ones for power. That's why I put the drives in a case where I thought I could stop the connectors moving by using packing. These are the adaptors I'm using:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/USB-2-0-to-IDE-SATA-2-5-3-5-IDE-SATA-Hard-Drive-Converter-Adapter-Cable-853-UK-/291131918146
I'd be interested in an alternative suggestion. I appreciate that I could probably install the 2 drives in the PC with adaptors, but, as they're used for backup, I'd prefer to be able to store them elsewhere.
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>> You need a proper USB disk caddy
Thanks. I'll give one a try and report back.
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I've used a 1T Seagate Essentials external hard drive for the same purpose for the past four plus years with a Panasonic TV and USB connection - the combination works very well.
But just one irritating feature. The hard drive is permanently only recognised by the Panny TV; it cannot be disconnected and used to show recordings on other televisions, even another Panasonic...:-(
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>> I've used a 1T Seagate Essentials external hard drive for the same purpose for the past four plus years with a Panasonic TV and USB connection - the combination works very well.
I wonder, Stuart, if the difference is due to how long you've had the TV. I've got a Pioneer DVR-520H DVD-HDD recorder which is now on its way out. It has quite sophisticated editing facilities which are not available on recent PVRs. Apparently the big film companies have brought about this change to make it harder for their films to be copied. Have they also forced Samsung to make their TV recording software ineffective?
If anyone has succeeded in making a Samsung TV record consistently onto a hard disk via a USB connection, I'd like to hear about it.
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>>I wonder, Stuart, if the difference is due to how long you've had the TV. >>
Not sure. The Panny will be five years old in mid-April (it was the first set with both Freeview and Freesat HD tuners); I only use the external USB hard drive to record particular programmes or individual musical items as required - I have a Blu-Ray player for films etc, but would be surprised if the Seagate couldn't record films for any reason.
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The case arrived this morning, I've assembled and used it. So far, so good. It's a much better solution than my adaption of a VHS case - the connectors are all very tight and the drive cannot move in the case. Thanks, Zero.
In the interim the drive which was giving trouble has failed totally - no sign of any movement inside. So maybe it was trying to tell me something.
Given that the two drives were identical and both were intermittently not being recognised by the PC, something has occurred to me. Should I have given each one its own drive letter?
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>> Given that the two drives were identical and both were intermittently not being recognised by
>> the PC, something has occurred to me. Should I have given each one its own
>> drive letter?
Windows will automatically assign the next available free drive letter and build an index as part of PnP. Its not normally a problem unless you have need for specific storage/archive paths.
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Hard drive problem - No FM2R
