Windows Vista Forums

External hard drive/power outage
  1. #1


    Darwin Guest

    External hard drive/power outage

    Using Maxtor Onetouch III Turbo with Windows Vista. Nearly completed a copy
    of system when power went out. Have surge and pc and drive both work. Tried
    shutdown and restart of Maxtor. Driver software comes up and allowed a
    diagnostic check which stated drive is running properly. However, am unable
    to reset, choose files to copy from system or run copy function on Maxtor.
    Will uninstall, re-install driver software and reformat/partition of drive
    allow normal usage, or is this drive history? If this is the way an external
    drive doesn't work, I won't be transferring any of my cd's anytime soon.......
    Any thoughts would be appreciated on this end. Thanks!



      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  2. #2


    David Guest

    RE: External hard drive/power outage

    Hi, I once had the power cable fall out of the socket on the back of my p.c.
    when it was booting up. Totally scrambled the HDD and I had to re-format and
    start from scratch. Don't know how to fix your problem but it doesn't sound
    promising. I always use a UPS now, just in case, (although it doesn't protect
    you from power cables falling out on the p.c. side of the UPS!)

    "Darwin" wrote:

    > Using Maxtor Onetouch III Turbo with Windows Vista. Nearly completed a copy
    > of system when power went out. Have surge and pc and drive both work. Tried
    > shutdown and restart of Maxtor. Driver software comes up and allowed a
    > diagnostic check which stated drive is running properly. However, am unable
    > to reset, choose files to copy from system or run copy function on Maxtor.
    > Will uninstall, re-install driver software and reformat/partition of drive
    > allow normal usage, or is this drive history? If this is the way an external
    > drive doesn't work, I won't be transferring any of my cd's anytime soon.......
    > Any thoughts would be appreciated on this end. Thanks!

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  3. #3


    David Guest

    RE: External hard drive/power outage

    I had another idea. Have you tried to contact Maxtor for advice?

    "Darwin" wrote:

    > Using Maxtor Onetouch III Turbo with Windows Vista. Nearly completed a copy
    > of system when power went out. Have surge and pc and drive both work. Tried
    > shutdown and restart of Maxtor. Driver software comes up and allowed a
    > diagnostic check which stated drive is running properly. However, am unable
    > to reset, choose files to copy from system or run copy function on Maxtor.
    > Will uninstall, re-install driver software and reformat/partition of drive
    > allow normal usage, or is this drive history? If this is the way an external
    > drive doesn't work, I won't be transferring any of my cd's anytime soon.......
    > Any thoughts would be appreciated on this end. Thanks!

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  4. #4


    usasma Guest

    RE: External hard drive/power outage

    It all depends on what the power surge scrambled. If it just scrambled the
    writing to disk - then it's likely that a format will fix it. If it surged
    through the PCB on the hard drive - then the drive may be "toast".

    Since the diagnostics say that the drive is OK, I'd suspect that it is OK -
    but you'll have to format it to find out for sure.

    Good luck!

    - John

    "Darwin" wrote:

    > Using Maxtor Onetouch III Turbo with Windows Vista. Nearly completed a copy
    > of system when power went out. Have surge and pc and drive both work. Tried
    > shutdown and restart of Maxtor. Driver software comes up and allowed a
    > diagnostic check which stated drive is running properly. However, am unable
    > to reset, choose files to copy from system or run copy function on Maxtor.
    > Will uninstall, re-install driver software and reformat/partition of drive
    > allow normal usage, or is this drive history? If this is the way an external
    > drive doesn't work, I won't be transferring any of my cd's anytime soon.......
    > Any thoughts would be appreciated on this end. Thanks!

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  5. #5


    Darwin Guest

    RE: External hard drive/power outage

    Thanks for the thoughts from both David and usama.

    Maxtor is now owned by another company and they have absolutely no customer
    support that I can render from their web site. I've read other info about
    this company elsewhere and others have no luck with customer support.

    I'll try to re-format, if that's at all possible......

    Thanks for your suggestions!

    "usasma" wrote:

    > It all depends on what the power surge scrambled. If it just scrambled the
    > writing to disk - then it's likely that a format will fix it. If it surged
    > through the PCB on the hard drive - then the drive may be "toast".
    >
    > Since the diagnostics say that the drive is OK, I'd suspect that it is OK -
    > but you'll have to format it to find out for sure.
    >
    > Good luck!
    >
    > - John
    >
    > "Darwin" wrote:
    >

    > > Using Maxtor Onetouch III Turbo with Windows Vista. Nearly completed a copy
    > > of system when power went out. Have surge and pc and drive both work. Tried
    > > shutdown and restart of Maxtor. Driver software comes up and allowed a
    > > diagnostic check which stated drive is running properly. However, am unable
    > > to reset, choose files to copy from system or run copy function on Maxtor.
    > > Will uninstall, re-install driver software and reformat/partition of drive
    > > allow normal usage, or is this drive history? If this is the way an external
    > > drive doesn't work, I won't be transferring any of my cd's anytime soon.......
    > > Any thoughts would be appreciated on this end. Thanks!

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  6. #6


    Darwin Guest

    RE: External hard drive/power outage

    Additional post on this problem with a power outage and external hard drive
    not responding.
    Twice when I restarted from shutdown, about an hour an a half later I
    received a balloon message from the Maxtor hard drive saying that it couldn't
    complete the copy (as I don't always have the drive connected). After the
    second time, I decided that I'd re-connect the hard drive, restart from
    shutdown and then wait. Exactly what I'd determined would happen, the drive
    was trying to finish the original copy from days before. After it cycled
    through, I was able to access the screens to choose which areas of my system
    to copy from the Maxtor software, and was able to make a new copy.
    This was a case of the program thinking that it was still running, even
    after a disconnect and shutdown. Try this for anyone who may have similar
    problems with an external drive. It saved a lot of re-formatting that I
    thought would have to be done.

    "Darwin" wrote:

    > Thanks for the thoughts from both David and usama.
    >
    > Maxtor is now owned by another company and they have absolutely no customer
    > support that I can render from their web site. I've read other info about
    > this company elsewhere and others have no luck with customer support.
    >
    > I'll try to re-format, if that's at all possible......
    >
    > Thanks for your suggestions!
    >
    > "usasma" wrote:
    >

    > > It all depends on what the power surge scrambled. If it just scrambled the
    > > writing to disk - then it's likely that a format will fix it. If it surged
    > > through the PCB on the hard drive - then the drive may be "toast".
    > >
    > > Since the diagnostics say that the drive is OK, I'd suspect that it is OK -
    > > but you'll have to format it to find out for sure.
    > >
    > > Good luck!
    > >
    > > - John
    > >
    > > "Darwin" wrote:
    > >

    > > > Using Maxtor Onetouch III Turbo with Windows Vista. Nearly completed a copy
    > > > of system when power went out. Have surge and pc and drive both work. Tried
    > > > shutdown and restart of Maxtor. Driver software comes up and allowed a
    > > > diagnostic check which stated drive is running properly. However, am unable
    > > > to reset, choose files to copy from system or run copy function on Maxtor.
    > > > Will uninstall, re-install driver software and reformat/partition of drive
    > > > allow normal usage, or is this drive history? If this is the way an external
    > > > drive doesn't work, I won't be transferring any of my cd's anytime soon.......
    > > > Any thoughts would be appreciated on this end. Thanks!

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

External hard drive/power outage problems?

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Big Problem=Power outage+install SP1 zulu1957 Vista performance & maintenance 1 01 Aug 2009
power outage mistake GreatNate General Discussion 1 11 Jul 2009
Only booting up in Power Save after outage rickyh24 Vista performance & maintenance 4 08 Jun 2008
Power Outage, now VISTA won't work Khaled Vista installation & setup 5 21 Feb 2008
Converting my external USB FAT external hard drive to NFTS ladymsvee Vista hardware & devices 2 22 Feb 2007