problem with external hard drive

hammy_the_hammer

hope someone can help . one of my external drives won't play and an icon no longer appears for it when you open my computer. it shows on device manager and disappears when i turn it off.
tried a different usb port and also my other drive works in the usb port
any ideas of what i could try.
also when the drive was turned on i tried double clicking to activate some programmes and nothing happened ..as soon as i turned the power off from the hard drive they worked....
any thoughts or ideas gratefully appreciated

hammy_the_hammer

i've also tried a search on here for any info but no luck yet

glosman555

Try running sfc /scannow in the run box to check the Windows files are correct.

hammy_the_hammer

an update ..i'm a bit of a newby with computers but get by. i uninstalled peer guardian and just for that session i got my icon back as drive H even though i'm sure it was drive G before . properties showed as 0 bytes used and 0 bytes available ...after restarting the pc i haven't been able to get it back.
i tried the sfc/scannow but it asked me for the service disc which i don't have.
we have an archos av700 from which you can transfer files to and from and ext hard drive without need for the pc ...it says error usb device could not be read correctly...
i am coming to the conclusion that the drive may be kaput ...any further thoughts please please please

glosman555

I installed a Seagate external harddrive two weeks ago and the drives disappeared in "My computer" after a couple of days, I tried the sfc/scannow and also " the last good configuration" via safe mode which seems to have corrected the problem, according to the Seagate manual if the USB is on the motherboard you should make sure you have the latest drivers from the M/B manufacturers. Sorry I don't have any other ideas.