Hello, I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me.

I have a 200 gig portable hard drive that plugs into the computer via a firewire port or a usb port.

I had it hooked up to my mom's computer today. I was doing a complete system reinstall for her computer (windows xp) and completely wiped both of her hard drives. I got a little button happy and accidently wiped my portable drive while it was conected to her computer.

There wasn't anything important on the drive, so I'm not worried about recovering anything. It's just that now the computer can't see the drive at all. I went into disk management to reformat it and it can't see it. When I tried plugging it into my stepdad's computer, it couldn't be detected.

My computer always has recognized this drive as my F drive but now when I plug it in it simply isn't there. The computer makes a noise when I plug in the firewire cord but nothing comes up.

What can I do to get the computer to see my hard drive??

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One nuclear bomb could wreck your whole day.

This is strange, never have had this problem. Any software involved at all?

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What brand/model is the drive?

Double post!

My Bad!

P.S. Thanks, DS.

While the portable hard drive is connected to a computer running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed, you can try the following:

If you are running the "Windows Classic: Theme:

Richt-Click on the "My Computer" icon on your Desktop.
Choose "Manage".

If nessasary, click the + next to "Storage" to expand it's options.
Choose "Disk Management".

Does your disk appear there?
You might have to scroll down some to see it.

(If it does)
You might need to reformat it.
To reformat it, right click on it and choose "Format", IIRC...
However, this will (most certianly) wipe the contents of the hard drive.

(If it does Not)
You have a problem.
It could be one or more of the following:
1) A Damaged USB or Firewire Cable. (Replace it)
2) The Hard Drive in the Portable Container is physically damaged. (Check Warranty)
3) The Power Supply for the Portable, be it the part that's outside, or the circuit board inside, is damaged. (Replace or warranty check)
4) Drivers! You might have forgotten to install USB or Firewire Drivers for your Motherboard.
5) Patches! You might need patches from Windows Update or the manafacturer of your motherboard.

This is all i can think of at this time, but if i can think of anything else, i'll be sure and post it.
=)

Edited to add:
If you don't want to take it outta the external case and connect it to an IDE or SATA connector on a motherboard to reformat it...
You can try messing with your BIOS and try to set up the "Boot From USB" or "Boot from external Device" (and set it's priority to come after booting from your OS HD) or the like.
Hopefully, this will help windows see it when you boot up the pc with it connected externally.

*pounds head on wall*

Okay... space cadet spaced out again and overlooked the fact that she didn't partition the drive after she wiped it.

I went back and partitioned it and now it's fine.

Sorry about that. (feels very silly)

__________________
One nuclear bomb could wreck your whole day.