Help! Pc doesn't see backup external disc

Mado

We have an old PC that has become very slow.
Tried the usual defrag, cc cleaner, registry cleanup and it diddn't help much.
So we though we would remove a load of our photos and music files from it to free some memory.
We bought a 1TB hard disk external drive. Didn't manage to format it on the PC (kept failing) but it went ok on the laptop. Plugged it back in the PC and I managed to copy all the photos.

Since then, the old PC refuses to ackowledge the external drive. We've tried unplugging, replugging in another USB, restart of both drive and computer... to no avail.

I can still see all my files from the laptop so I know the stoage unit is working.

Any suggestions about what to do????

closed

not an answer to your question, but did you move your only copy of the photo's to the drive, if so, not good practice, there are countless threads of people on here who have lost all their data by doing just that

moving data, registry cleaners, defrags, and ccleaner have very little if any effect on speed.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

Mado

No. All the photos are regulalrly burned on CDs.
I don't entirely trust CDs to keep information long term.
I'm off to follow your advice now.:D

closed

It's better to keep the originals on the laptop/pc hard disk (doesn't affect speed at all unless the disk is completely full), keep copies of important data on dvd, and reburn new ones every so often, store in the dark, and use the external drive for backup only - a third copy using disk imaging software to backup the whole pc, windows and data.

is the usb device visible in device manager, or are any problems apparent in device manager?

Mado

No it's not visible at all.
I've just tried to update the malwarebytes on the old Pc (hadn't run it for a year) and I had an "error coe 732(0,0). Something fishy with the PC!!!

closed

reinstall it, and do hijackthis log, commit charge etc. and copy your data to the laptop so you have another copy in case the external drive goes belly up completely

Mado

Actually, I can't open the task manager on the old PC.
All that comes up is a window with the task and status, and 3 buttons to end task, switch to or new task.
It's most peculiar and certainly not what I get on the laptop.

I'll leave it for now.

closed

what is the operating system, click on the task manager border if you can't see processes tabs