External Drive no longer found

[lauri4tr]

I had an external drive (a WD My Passport Ultra) attached to my computer. I was online using a YouTube to MP3 program and I received an error saying "your computer has been locked....do not close... " type error. It looked like  a spam message to me, so I closed the error window and closed out of the YouTube to MP3 site. I restarted my computer and everything seemed to be fine. I finished what I was doing - transferring files between my hard drive and my USB external Passport drive. When I was done I unplugged my Passport drive. When I later tried to use it again it wouldn't work. It is no longer seen as a drive. I can find it in device manager. I've tried doing a few things, but I'm quite illiterate in this area and I don't know what to do. In the Events tab there is a message that reads
Device USB\VID_1058&PID_0830\575838314136344336523858 requires further installation.  What other information should I provide to get help in trying to fix this?
I am using a Dell laptop with Windows 10 Home.

[Boggin]

Can you run a scan with the free AdwCleaner to check that nothing untoward has installed itself on your machine to give that locked up message.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/adwcleaner/

With your external HDD plugged in, go into Device Manager, locate and right click on the external HDD and select Uninstall device.

You can either reboot or click on Action/Scan for hardware changes where it will be reinstalled.

[lauri4tr]

I have uninstalled and reinstalled it with no success. I ran the Mawarebytes program and the only thing it noted was some preinstalled software. I copied the log in my response, but I got this error when I tried to submit my response: CleanTalk: *** Forbidden. Message seems to be spam. ***
When I look at the Event Viewer/Administrative Events I see the following message: The IO operation at logical block address 0x800c000 for Disk 1 (PDO name: \Device\000000e1) failed due to a hardware error.

[lauri4tr]

Trying again.... I'm removing the # symbols and anything else that I think might be causing the error that prevents me from sending it.
Malwarebytes Log:
Malwarebytes AdwCleaner 8.0.8.0

Build:    10-08-2020
Database: 2020-12-21.1 (Cloud)
Support:  https://www.malwarebytes.com/support

Mode: Scan

Start:    01-02-2021
Duration: 00:00:17
OS:       Windows 10 Home
Scanned:  31930
Detected: 15

No malicious services found.

No malicious folders found.

No malicious files found.

No malicious DLLs found.

No malicious WMI found.

No malicious shortcuts found.



No malicious tasks found.



PUP.Optional.Legacy             HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppContainer\Storage\microsoft.microsoftedge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\Children\001\Internet Explorer\DOMStorage\dotomi.com
PUP.Optional.Legacy             HKCU\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppContainer\Storage\microsoft.microsoftedge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\Children\001\Internet Explorer\EdpDomStorage\dotomi.com
PUP.Optional.Legacy             HKCU\Software\WebDiscoverBrowser
PUP.Optional.Legacy             HKLM\Software\WebDiscoverBrowser
PUP.Optional.Legacy             HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\WebDiscoverBrowser
PUP.Optional.QuickDriverUpdater HKLM\Software\qdu-pr

No malicious Chromium entries found.

No malicious Chromium URLs found.

No malicious Firefox entries found.

No malicious Firefox URLs found.

No malicious hosts file entries found.

Preinstalled.DellSupportAssistAgent   Folder   C:\Program Files\DELL\SAREMEDIATION\AGENT
Preinstalled.DellSupportAssistAgent   Folder   C:\Program Files\DELL\SAREMEDIATION\AUDIT
Preinstalled.DellSupportAssistAgent   Folder   C:\Program Files\DELL\SAREMEDIATION\PLUGIN
Preinstalled.DellSupportAssistAgent   Folder   C:\ProgramData\DELL\SAREMEDIATION\AGENT
Preinstalled.DellSupportAssistAgent   Folder   C:\ProgramData\DELL\SAREMEDIATION\PLUGIN
Preinstalled.DellUpdateforWindows10   Folder   C:\Program Files (x86)\DELL\UPDATESERVICE
Preinstalled.DellUpdateforWindows10   Folder   C:\Program Files\DELL\UPDATE
Preinstalled.DellUpdateforWindows10   Folder   C:\ProgramData\DELL\UPDATESERVICE
Preinstalled.DellUpdateforWindows10   Registry   HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\{70E9F8CC-A23E-4C25-B292-C86C1821587C}

EOF - C:\AdwCleaner\Logs\AdwCleaner[S00].txt

[Boggin]

Have you tried another USB port for your external HDD or if possible, on another machine.

[lauri4tr]

I have tried another USB port...didn't work. I just tried it on another computer and had no luck there either.

[Boggin]

Then it's quite possible that it has died.

Does it appear in Disk Management ?

If it does then you can download and install SeaTools for Windows to run a scan on it.

After checking the drive's box, clicking on Basic Tools will give you a choice of scans.

https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/seatools-win-master/

My external HDD works fine and you will see from my pic below how it appears in Disk Management.

[lauri4tr]

It does appear in disc management. I will download the link above and hope for the best. Thanks for your help.

[Boggin]

Is it assigned a drive letter in Disk Management ?

If it has then you could perform a chkdsk /r on it.

Using my drive letter of e:\ as an example, the cmd would be chkdsk e: /r

[lauri4tr]

There is no drive number assigned. It appears in device manager... I'm not sure if that's what you meant by disk management. I ran the scan you suggested with SeaTools, but I'm don't understand the results. Under detected drives I see Serial Number SAS-SCSI-FC, and under that it says NI93T000. The NI93T000 has a checkbox next to it. Model Number shows BC501 NVMe SK hy. Firmware Revision 2C00.
Under Basic Tests I tried running Long Generic. Test Status showed 100%.

[Boggin]

To see if it is listed in Disk Management, right click on the Windows icon in the taskbar then click on Disk Management.

[lauri4tr]

I wish I could send a screenshot, but that doesn't seem to work. I see Disc 0 partitions 1, 4, 5, and 6 all showing Layout: Simple Type: Basic File System shows nothing and Status is Healthy. There is something after the word Healthy, but the field is truncated and I can't see what it says. I can't expand the field until I respond to an Initialize Disk box for Disk 1. I'm not sure what that is for or what I should do with it. It is defaulting to use the GPT (GUID Partition Table) for that disk.

[lauri4tr]

I found steps here to edit the registry.
https://appuals.com/fix-must-initialize-disk-logical-disk-manager-can-access/
I have already tried all of the other steps noted. Should I go ahead and try it - or do you have other suggestions that may work? I am comfortable editing the registry long as the instructions are correct. If all else fails I'll reformat the drive if I have to.

[lauri4tr]

Regedit didn't help. I didn't find these values noted in the instructions:
In the right pane of the Registry Editor, look for registry values titled UpperFilters and LowerFilters.
If you find one or both of these registry values, right-click on them and click on Delete.

[Boggin]

In Disk Management, look to the top right of the screen where you will see a small box to the left of the red X

Click on that and that will expand the Disk Management screen to full screen.

I use a Toshiba laptop and to take a screen shot I have to press FN ALT and PRTSC together then I go Start - type paint and press enter when it comes up.

Clicking on Paste will put the image into the pane.

Click on File/Saveas and give it a name.

To attach a pic to your post, go below the reply box and click on Browse then select the Pictures folder and click on the image file and click on Open where when you post your reply, it will appear as mine did in an earlier post.

However, the fact that you are being prompted to initialize the external HDD for Windows to see it would confirm that it is in fact dead, especially as other machines don't recognize it.

[lauri4tr]

Here's a picture of the disk management screen. Thanks for your help.
It appears I'm going to lose all my data, correct?

[Boggin]

Not necessarily.

I wrongly assumed that as you were prompted to initialize it, it was dead.

Reading the following article it would seem that you may be able to recover the HDD.

 https://www.easeus.com/resource/disk-unknown-not-initialized.html

The EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard isn't a free program but it does have an initial trial version.

If this was mine, I'd probably take it into a reputable computer repair shop.