External HD went from 500GB to 30GB

on the other hand, it appears Drive (C) has the same data as partition? Drive (I)... I think,,,

 

I'm not totally sure about (C) having the exact same stuff as (I), since I have most of the 500GBs to use, I'm wondering if the (I)partition should be saved...

 

Latest update:

Disk Management:

Disks 0 & 1 remain the same
Disk 2:

Acronis SZ
465.75 GB Fat 32
Healthy[unknown partition]

 

Gary, remember that none of your drive letters pertain to the external HD. You can't see the external HD from My Computer.

Without a Disk Management graphic we are like the blind men examining the elephant. Some of your data from Disk Management is conflicting. Probably typos.

 

Uncertain why the now Disk 2 Acronis SZ is Fat32, the other drives are all NTSF.

I bought this drive to hold an extensive[thousands of music CD's] music archives and my digital photos too.

 

How may I post my Disk Graphics?

cut n paste doesnt seem to work in Disk Management??

 

You are right about MyComputer NOT showing the external...

 

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=189549

A quick way is to have Disk Management maximized on your monitor. Press PrintScreen (on the keyboard)

Open Paint, click Edit, Paste. You will now see the graphic.

Click File, Save as, choose GIF as "Save as type". Save.

Upload the GIF as per Grover's instructions.

 

Gary,

Probably the easiest way - hit print screen on your keyboard. Then open Microsoft Paint and do an Edit > Paste.

It would also be helpful if you could give us a quick summary of what is on each of your partitions (e.g., OS and programs on the c: drive, My Documents on the e: drive, etc).

Also, let us know which partitions have data that you absolutely want to keep (versus you are fine re-formatting them).

Paul

 

My Disk Graphics

 

No image there, Gary.

 

If I may interrupt here:

When saw "Western Digital MyBook", a red "Uh-oh" flag went up in my mind. Then when I saw that you can't get the thing to show up in My Computer or Disk Management, I got instant sympathy pain.

WD My Books are absolute dogs, with a reputation for crashing that seems to grow by the day. I had a MyBook die on me not too long ago, after less than one year of use. Like your's, the device showed up when connected, but not the drive. I really hope for your sake you didn't have any vital data on that thing that wasn't backed up. I did, and most of that vital data wasn't backed up—I am now incredibly anal retentive about backing up EVERYTHING—so I'm looking at shelling out big bucks for data recovery.

So basically what I'm saying here is that there's a good chance that the problem is simply that your MyBook is dead. I seriously hope that isn't your problem, but I got a bad feeling about it.

Lots of MyBook horror stories—including mine—can be found here.

 

Rippy,

I don't think there is a hardware problem. I think all the data is gone and been replaced by an Acronis Secure Zone. Let's see.

 

This should be my Disk Graphics:

last night I sent too many messages and this forum wouldn't let me in at the exact instance I was trying to send my Disk Graphics. Hoping this works.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1192345#post1192345

 

Finally the mystery has been solved. Good work guys.

 

Here is some data I got with Acronis System Report:

 

This should be my latest Disk Graphics...

note: on MyComputer , Removable Disk (H) now appears in "devices with removable storage", when I click on it, it says "please insert a disk into drive H", but the WD external has no disc drive...fji

btw, since this forum will limit daily imput from me, I'll stop for now and wait for replies...as necessary...

thanks again...next step please...

 

Gary,

From your graphic, it is clear that Brian was right - Acronis created a Secure Zone on your external drive. I am going to leave it to the experts here to give you advice as how best to undo that. Did you have any data on that drive that you want to try to recover?

Also, the fact that your c: drive is listed as your system drive and your I: drive is listed as your boot drive doesn't look right to me (unless you happen to have a dual boot system, which I do not believe that you do). Once again, I am going to leave it to people far more knowledgeable than me to give you advice on that one.

I think that we're almost there ...

Paul

 

Just got this Disk Graphics:
It shows a Disk 3 (H)...in MyComputer it shows up as "devices with removable storage", who knows?

I have a USB2.0 jack connected, but NOT connected to my iPod...

anyway, this is a complete picture of my system...hope this helps.

 

Gary, you mentioned..

Did you have anything valuable on that HD? Tell us before we go further.

DwnNdrty, you understand Secure Zones. Anything special to do apart from deleting and recreating the partition on the external HD.

Drive H: looks like a single slot card reader. Not important at present.

Disk 0 indicates you have installed WinXP twice. You did mention..

Anyone with experience of the "Microsoft Way" of dual booting care to comment on what to do here?

 

I dont believe there is anything on the external drive, it reads 100% free...

It appears I've installed Windows XP twice, but the start screen shows two places to click, one has been totally installed, the other one has not.

It goes to automatic start after so many seconds...

Then I have several names for desktops, thats about it...

 

It's empty now but did you have anything of value on the external HD before this happened? It's possible the data could be recovered.

Your HD 0 has C: (System) which contains the boot files. About 500 MB used space.

Your HD 0 has I: (Boot) which contains the Windows folder, etc. About 6.5 GB used space.

At present you need both partitions for WinXP to boot. Let's wait for further help.

 

I am unsure of what is on the external, I believe it to be copies of stuff on the other drives which are still there, but...my original C drive appears to be just a memory...it had various files/pictures.

 

OK, so the external HD is ready to fix. It will be completely back to normal soon.

Your I: drive seems to have a lot of used space for a recent installation. Are any of your original C: drive files in the I: drive?

 

I think some C files are on the I partition...