Welcome to the club! I bought a Maxtor FW drive last year but didn't use it much. When I got around to really needing it (after the warranty expired) the darn thing upset windows 2000 with bizarre error messages as soon as it spun down and eventually told me it was inacccessible. Couldn't recover the files and ended up re-encoding and re-authoring five DVDs. Lacie FW drives, on the other hand, are far more reliable.

The only hope for you is to do what the previous poster suggested: remove the generic (cheap) hard drive from the enclosure and patch it into your motherboard. Once you recover your data throw the drive out.

Had a similar problem and solved it.
Search this link to prior forum: recovering lost files

Still no joy, and it's weird because my Win98SE computer has no problem with it, and my XP computer sees the drive, but it just keeps giving that format dialog.

But here's something else: through Control Panel>Admistrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management, I can not only see the drive, but the part that has all my data shows as "Healthy (Active)", but it's the only drive that doesn't show a file system. My other drives show up as either FAT 32 of NTFS, but this one has nothing listed at all under File System. Maybe there's something I need to do for my XP machine to be able to see or identify the drive as FAT 32? But what, I don't know...

Also, in Control Panel>Admistrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management, I formatted a small unused (empty) 500MB section of the drive to FAT 32, and lo and behold, I can access that no problem though My Computer on my XP machine. So it's just the section of the drive that has all my data that I can't access, presumably because my XP machine can't identify its file system, so that's why it asks me to format it. But as I mentioned, my Win98SE machine has no problem with it.

How do I get my XP computer to identify that part of the drive as the FAT 32 volume it is?

>>>The only hope for you is to do what the previous poster suggested: remove the generic (cheap) hard drive...<<<

I need to be clear - I did not have a Maxtor firewire drive. I had an external firewire drive enclosure with a Maxtor drive inside. When the drive stoped reading in Windows Xp I troubleshot everything - changed firewire cables, removed drivers, re-booted windows and so on. So I than took the drive out of the firewire enclosure and put it inside my computer, worked perfect. When I figured out that I went out and bought an ultra ATA controler and put that in and hooked the maxtor drive up to it and took the firewire drive enclosure back and got store credit as they stoped making the unit.

Now back to the question p_l asked. You might try partition magic as it will format/re-partition already formated drives without killing the stuff on it. the other thing is really a simple solution as you are already doing part of it - move the firewire drive over to your Win 98 system and drag all the files over to an internal hard drive on that. Now go back and re-format your porblem drive. Now go back and put it back on your 98 system and drag the files back over onto it.

p_l

please I'm really too busy to rewrite the whole story, but if your footage and files are important enough they can be recovered (good possiblility, anyway).
do a search on "recovering lost files" and you'll see a repeat of your situation, with a detailed story on how I got the problem solved. I'd rewrite it, but I'm out on the road and in the middle of a job.
good luck

Thanks for the replies. I tried Partition Magic, but it won't convert an unformatted drive, which is what it identifies it as. If I choose "format" though, it tells me that will destroy all the data. Actually, in that respect, Partition Magic doesn't seem much more useful than XP's own Disk Management utility.

Total Recall seems impressive... but if they can do that over the Internet, there should be a way for me to do it myself at home. And for $400, I may as well in fact just move the firewire drive over to my Win 98 system and drag all the files over to an internal hard drive on that, then go back and re-format the problem drive. The Win98 machine only has a puny 6GB drive though, but my solution will be to send the files from the Maxtor attached to the Win98 machine over my wireless LAN back to the 100GB drive on my XP machine. Then I'll format the Maxtor again and put the files back on it.

But what I still can't get my brain around in all of this is that the Win98 machine can see and access the files fine as a FAT 32 volume, but the XP machine (and Partition Magic) sees the drive as unformatted.

Here we go again...

I'll bet anything your problem is the horrible Matrox interface card that connects the dirve inside the case to the outside world. Short version of my story. Three Maxtor external drives, all firewire, ALL failed, the original and two replacments.

The bottom line as you more or less confirmed yourself is the drive it fine if one system can read the files OK and the other sees the drive as only as dead wood.

I would be interested what the XP windows machine says about the "health" of the drive. Do this. Start/Control Panel/ Perm. & Maint/ Administrative tools/computer Management/ Disk Management

Does XP show the dirve as FAT32 or NTFS and does it so as healthy or as some other codition?

While still in XP as long as you get the drive's drive letter, right click on it from Window Explorer/ properties/ tools/ check disk. Depending on your configuration it may say it has to reboot. Before you do, under check now check the first option to auto fix. That may alone solve your problem. If not repeat and this time also check surface scan.

When XP reboots you'll see a pale bule screen. Don't freak, this is the updated version of checkdisk doing its thing.

Thanks for the reply. XP's Disk Managament shows it as "Healthy (Active)," but under File System it's blank.

Trying to run Error-checking simply does not work. I click Check Now, then Start, and the dialog goes away and nothing happens. Defragging also can't be performed on it.

So, are any of these external firewire drives better?
What should I get to replace the Maxtor so this doesn't happen again?

Consider the Cobra external drive series from EZQuest. I have one, and it hasn't had any problems. Contains the Oxford 911 chip or something like that, which is a good thing.

As long as you have access to a Win98 system, put the drive in it, then run checkdisk from it. Like I said, I doubt anything is wrong with the drive itself, just want you to make sure with checkdisk. As you said it seems to work fine when not in the system you have with the %#$(% firewire and XP.

Unless you absolutely must have one, I would get away from firewire drives. They simply are not reliable. It isn't just people in this forum that have reported issues, the web is full of people reporting the same type of problems over and over.

Just to throw out a couple other things. IF the firewire drive is working properly it should be seen by Windows and Windows should EVERY TIME it is plugged in bring up a little acknowledgement box asking how you want to access the files. If this box is absent or doesn't come up EVERY time, then there is something wrong/missing from the Registry. In older version of Windows 98SE you had to download and install a patch to get firewire to work at all.

Also some changes were made by Microsoft in the Service Pack released for XP. If you haven't installed that, that too could be part of the problem.

BillyBoy, I have a SmartDisk firewire drive that works well, but I have never gotten the prompt when I install it. I am using WinME. Is this prompt common to all Windows versions or just XP? What exactly does the prompt say?

thanks

Dave T2

I never used the ME version of Windows much so don't remember. However I've seen the same pop-up in Win98SE and XP.

Can't put my hands on the web page I saw an extensive article on it, from memory any "removable" device such as a digital camera or drive connected to a firewire port should be acknowledged when the device is turned on by Windows in effect saying, oh... you added a new device, OK I see it, its a (fill in the blank) and then Windows should offer a choice of what you can do with the device.

In the case of a firewire drive it should present a choice similar to what happens when you pop in a CD where it offers to play the files, view the folder contents or take no action. Now you can disable auto play or set an action that the drive is suppose to remember each time. However even if you do disable the pop-up there should still be a audible cue which is Windows way of letting you know its sees the device.

Where things get muddy is if you leave a firewire device connected to your computer and turn the device on prior to Windows bootstraping it should see the device. However there is a bug that can cause Windows to first see the device, then once it is done initialzing it drops out. This may be one of the reasons for the now you see it, now you don't problem when sometime a firewire device works, then the next time it doesn't.

The supposed only "proper" way to mount a firewire drive from a cold boot is have the device's power supply on, but NO physical connection of the firewire connector to the computer. Once Windows is up THEN insert the firewire plug into a firewire port and immediately you should hear the audio cue that's Windows found it followed by the pop-up window asking what if anything you want to do with the device.

In typical Windows fashion the above isn't true for every system. In my case no matter what I did when I had my Maxtor it would NEVER work unless I followed the above routine. I have friends that also bought the same beast and some had the experience I had and others didn't. So if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. If it is broke, or acts odd, maybe this will help someone. Also unmounting the device had another routine. Apparently the proper way is once Windows detects a firewire drive it is suppose to add a button to the task bar at the extreme right bottom of your desktop. If you attempt to turn off the firewire drive before you unmount it from this software switch, Windows would throw up a nag screen warning don't do that to avoid file corruption. Again, if you don't see it and otherwise everything is OK, don't mess. If you're having trouble with your firewire, another thing to worry about. Just more reasons I don't use firewire drives anymore. Windows can get confused with them.

Thanks for the information. I never had a pop up or an audio cue. It puts an Icon on the System Tray when the drive is mounted. This is on two systems with different hardware but both Win ME.

It does work, so I won't change it. In fact, I have captured video directly to it with no problem. It is a small 6 gig drive, so not much video will go.

Again thanks for the info. I was just curious. Might be one of those other weird things with Win ME.

Dave T2

Thanks again for the help. I backed up a lot of the files from the Maxtor first to some space left on the Win98SE machine's 6GB drive, then over my wireless LAN back to my XP machine's 100GB drive. Then I disconnected the Maxtor from the Win98SE machine and tried to reconnect it today. Now the Win98SE machine doesn't even see the drive any more. *sigh*

Oh well, at least I had backed up my favorite/most important videos the first time. I guess it'll be time to format it now. It's become a paperweight. Ye who format, abandon all hope.

There is one other thing that just crossed my mind...in Windows Xp there is a reg tweak that you can do, but if you do it you are supposed to *never* uninstall the firewire drive. MS says "You must not use a dynamic disk on a drive that is mobile. When a dynamic disk drive is moved from one environment to another, the computer can make modifications to the Logical Disk Manager (LDM) data base. When the drive is reintegrated into the original computer, those changes can be transferred to its LDM data base."

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299598 to get the full details on it and see if this could be the issue? And there is also a fix for a problem with firewire deivices vanishing after about 10 minutes, I don't htink this is your case because you said it just vanished and never came back *AND* supposedly this only happens with Windows ME - but here is the link anyway. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;252208

Thanks. I also found this, but we're really getting complicated here. I also appreciate your suggestion, but one of my primary purposes for having an external drive is to be able top hook it up to other computers.

Looks like I'm doomed to format.

p_l , when I first used my external Maxtors - the latest ones with the ONeTouch Technology - I had a hell of business from stopping them crashing and generally misbehaving. I went back to the supplier who put out a tech call to Maxtor Ireland. I eventually got excellent support for my WIN-ME by being given a firmware update that meant me working from DOS to make the changes. He "held" my hand over the phone while I did this. It was a once off "fix", but it did it.

Now, I've been reading this thread and have been thinking if my experience would be of any value. When I read your "but we're really getting complicated here." comment, I thought it might be of value for you to find out if there is a firmware fix required - my 2 pennies worth.

Grazie

Thanks for the tea and sympathy, Grazie. :) I may give them a call as a last ditch effort. In the meantime, out of morbid curiosity, some of you might be interested in Maxtor's official response, which essentially sounds like a post mortem. Translation: You're hosed, but good luck and thank you for buying Maxtor products!

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Response (TSCorey82) 07/29/2003 09:48 AM
Good morning,

Situations in which an external hard drive appears in Disk Management without a listed file system typically indicates partition corruption. Therefore, you will need to delete the corrupted partition and then repartition and reformat as desired. This is further reinforced by the fact that the operating system is indicating that the 120G external drive needs to be formatted. You are correct in understanding that a reformat will result in the loss of all data currently written to this drive. You will need to contact a data recovery service to explore the various methods of recovering the data that has been seemingly lost. Maxtor external drives come pre-formatted to the FAT32 file system. I would suspect that in your case, the Windows XP operating system began to view this as a foreign partition and thus stopped being able to gain access to the data. There is also the possibility that the external drive may have been improperly dismounted; which has been known to result in a system crash and the loss of the ability to recover the data already written to the drive.

Data recovery services can be found through Internet search engines. Please note that Maxtor does not perform any data recovery services, nor does Maxtor authorize, recommend or endorse any specific data recovery services or companies. In order to preserve the warranty status of your drive, the data recovery company you select must provide Maxtor with proof of service indicating that data recovery services have been performed on the drive. This proof of service must be included with the drive if it is returned to Maxtor for replacement. Ask in advance if your selected Data Recovery Service provides this proof of service. Failure to provide satisfactory proof of service will void any remaining warranty on the drive.

Once the data recovery issue has been resolved, then you will be ready to move on the aforementioned reformatting of the drive. Full instructions on using the Windows XP Disk Management to delete and then reformat your drive can be found at: http://maxtor.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/maxtor.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=962 Just be certain to first delete the corrupted partition. Once the operating system is given full control of the formatting, including the process of writing its signature, this stability issue should not recur. Please understand that due to Microsoft mandated limitations within the Windows XP operating system, you will not be able to create any single FAT32 partitions greater than 32G in size. This would mean that your external drive will need to have at least two partitions so you can continue using it to play your finished products within a Windows 98SE environment. Obviously, the second partition can be either FAT32 or NTFS.

Microsoft’s full instructions on using the Disk Management utility can be found at: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b309000

If you require any more information or further assistance please feel free to contact us again. Thank you for using Maxtor data storage solutions. Good luck!

Corey TS82
Maxtor Technical Support

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