External Hard Drive unknown and not initializing in Disk Management

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ECurfman0713

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Jan 21, 2022
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Since earlier this week, I haven't been able to access my external hard drive through File Manager, and haven't been able to make any headway in resolving the issue with any methods I've seen. I'm using a standard Inspiron 15 7000 laptop running Windows 10, and the drive is a WD My Passport 2626 with 1TB of storage. I've had frequent connection issues in the past, which I'd normally fix by repeatedly plugging and unplugging, or just wiggling the USB. Just to be safe, I have ordered a replacement USB 3.0, and will update when it arrives. I don't know how related it might be, but I lost access after I was using RPCS3, and encountered a particularly weird and persistent glitch. I can elaborate on it if anyone thinks it might be relevant, but I've had the rom and emulator downloaded to the external hard drive since last January without ever having any problem.

As for the actual issue, I've done some looking around, and it seems like the same sort of symptoms from this thread, but again, nothing has worked out.

Screenshot (38).png


The computer recognizes when it's plugged in, making the normal notification chime, but I can't get into it. In Disk Management, in the picture above, it's marked as unknown and not initialized, with a red arrow on the drive icon, and attempting to initialize it or set it to online by right-clicking results in a VDM cyclic redundancy check error message, and the three New Volume actions are greyed out. However, when I check its Properties, nothing there appears to be out of the ordinary, with no problems reported in the details. The only things that I thought were off are the type, status, and partition style.

Screenshot (36).png
Screenshot (37).png


I've tried several other different recommendations I've found. The The Microsoft documentation site recommended using Device Manager to disable or uninstall, neither of which had any affect, nor is it flagged as having a problem there. Stellarinfo.com had me use the Command Prompt, where I tried using the CHKDSK utility and an SFC scan, and the thread I mentioned at the start tried cleaning and reformatting through PowerShell, but both convert commands just got cyclic redundancy checks.

Screenshot (39).png


I'm at a loss as to what to try next, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Are the emulation files on the external hard drive - games & the software? Have you checked for any updates to the program?
Are you using the beta version of RPCS3 or the release?
I suspect the drive has failed. are there any files on the drive which aren’t backed up so require saving?
If not then try cleaning the drive using diskpart:
Open powershell with admin & enter:
diskpart
list disk
select disk X (where X is the number of the hared drive you wish to clean)
Clean
Exit
Exit

Then go to disk management & format/initialise it.
If at any time this fails then the drive is bad.
 
@Bastet the last image showing that they did the Diskpart.

FYI any data that was on that drive by running the clean in Diskpart is now gone.

In disk manager right click on where it says Disk 2 and select Initialize.

If that does not work, you may need to do a clean all in Diskpart.

Which will then zero out the drive and depending on how large the drive is will take some time.
 
Last edited:
Rustys said:
Do you need any further assistance?
Click to expand...
Yes. Apologies for going quiet, I was dealing with schoolwork and hadn't seen any notifications of responses. I have just tried a new USB 3.0, to no success, which seems to have been expected.
Bastet said:
Are the emulation files on the external hard drive - games & the software? Have you checked for any updates to the program?
Are you using the beta version of RPCS3 or the release?
I suspect the drive has failed. are there any files on the drive which aren’t backed up so require saving?
If not then try cleaning the drive using diskpart:
Open powershell with admin & enter:
diskpart
list disk
select disk X (where X is the number of the hared drive you wish to clean)
Clean
Exit
Exit

Then go to disk management & format/initialise it.
If at any time this fails then the drive is bad.
Click to expand...
I don't recall if the RPSC3 was in in Beta or not, and I have lost access to it, though believe it was v.0.0.14. I unfortunately had not backed up any of my files. The need to do so hadn't ever crossed my mind, as I wasn't expecting it to fail. Going forward, what would the best way to back them up be?
Rustys said:
@Bastet the last image showing that they did the Diskpart.

FYI any data that was on that drive by running the clean in Diskpart is now gone.

In disk manager right click on where it says Disk 2 and select Initialize.

If that does not work, you may need to do a clean all in Diskpart.

Which will then zero out the drive and depending on how large the drive is will take some time.
Click to expand...
To clarify, before I try the clean-all command, I've already wiped all my data from the hard drive by running the clean command? That's disheartening, but at least most of it that was lost was just Steam games and other downloads from Itch.io and the like, so everything other than save data is recoverable, just time consuming.

Thank you all for the help! I will look into getting a replacement. I'm really curious about why it failed so abruptly, though. In your opinions, was it just coincidental to the RPCS3 glitch and/or the connection issue, or is there some correlation between either?
 
Here is what Disk part does
docs.microsoft.com

DiskPart Command-Line Options

docs.microsoft.com

clean
Removes any and all partition or volume formatting from the disk with focus. On master boot record (MBR) disks, only the MBR partitioning information and hidden sector information are overwritten. On GUID partition table (GPT) disks, the GPT partitioning information, including the Protective MBR, is overwritten; there is no hidden sector information.

all
Specifies that each and every sector on the disk is zeroed, which completely deletes all data contained on the disk.

Here is some more information from Microsoft.
 
as to why a drive can fail so abruptly..... there may have been some clues, like SMART values changing, bad sectors when scanning - but these clues usually only appear reactively, that is, only known after human intervention. sometimes Windows can proactively alert you as well.

the main reason is most likely due to the drive being external. by that very nature, it is more likely to be knocked or move while in use, improperly disconnected, or thrown into a bag while still spinning. even when the heads are parked, a drop from chest height onto a footpath can also kill a drive (been there!) and while this wasn't your root cause, my point is mechanical drives hate any g-force.

how long have you had the drive for?
 
Bruce said:
as to why a drive can fail so abruptly..... there may have been some clues, like SMART values changing, bad sectors when scanning - but these clues usually only appear reactively, that is, only known after human intervention. sometimes Windows can proactively alert you as well.

the main reason is most likely due to the drive being external. by that very nature, it is more likely to be knocked or move while in use, improperly disconnected, or thrown into a bag while still spinning. even when the heads are parked, a drop from chest height onto a footpath can also kill a drive (been there!) and while this wasn't your root cause, my point is mechanical drives hate any g-force.

how long have you had the drive for?
Click to expand...
Under a year. I got it last spring, but I think you're right on the money. I was not gentle with transporting or storing it, and often just threw it into my bag with my computer when rushing to make it to a lecture or the sort. Properly disconnecting and making sure it's fully off never really happened.

I never really thought to do any scanning or anything, so the only red flag I noticed was the connection issue. I chalked up to a faulty cable and just bore with it, and just planned on getting a new cable when it gave up the ghost. I'm notoriously rough on any and all cords I use, so it didn't strike me as anything out of the ordinary based on my track record.
 
You can try a new cable and see if that helps if not then can see if any data can be recovered before the drive is zero'd out.

If that does not work, then the drive is dead and now you have learned a lesson and to keep more than one back up.
 
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