Hello.

I have a Seagate Expansion Portable Drive ST907504EXD101-RK 750 GB. A couple of months ago, I formatted it to WBFS, so I could backup some games from my Wii. My computer used to recognise it as an "Unformatted Disk" or something, on My Computer and on Disk Management. The only way I could interact with it (add, remove, replace files) was through a program called WBFS Manager.

On to the actual problem. I recently formatted my computer, meaning reinstalled Windows XP and all. The thing is, the hard disk is not detected anymore. It's not on My Computer, Disk Management or WBFS Manager. It makes no sound when plugged in, though the little green light on the HDD turns on. I've tried all the "obvious" solutions, such as changing the USB port/cable and restarting my computer.

Now, I know that you probably do not know how to deal with this, since WBFS isn't a common format and most of you probably haven't even heard of it before. But I'd like some information on how to completely format the drive or something, so the computer can detect it again? I don't mind having all my files deleted from it.

Sorry if my English is confusing, and please help me out. I spent ages saving up for that hard disk xD

Are you saying that the computer (i.e. Windows) doesn't make the two-tone USB-insertion sound? Or are you saying that the disk drive makes no spin-up sound as it is plugged-in (when you listen very closely)? Or both? Or something else?

Also, was the disk drive ever detected (whatever you mean by that, depending on your answer to the above question) after you formatted the computer, or did this problem start immediately after you formatted it & reinstalled Windows

Did you make any hardware changes to the computer at the same time, or just reformat it & reinstall Windows?

Have you ever reinstalled Windows successfully on this PC before, with exactly the same motherboard & cards?

Have you got any other USB storage (e.g. flash drive) which you can use to show that the USB ports work correctly with that? (I'm wondering if you have some USB ports which need a non-standard driver, and which is now missing after you reinstalled Windows, that's why I'm asking this question.)

Have you got access to a different PC, where you can temporarily connect this Seagate drive, to check whether it is detected correctly there?

P.S. Thanks for the link to the WBFS article. I haven't heard of it until now. I don't have a Wii.

I suggest you to call on to your service provider and have the problem fixed. They will sure find a way to get data that was saved in your hard drive.

What??? What sort of useless response is that? What service provider, he's running pirated games on his Wii. I'm pretty sure there's no service provider to contact.

Anyway @OP, if you go into computer management > disk management see if the drive is appearing there and if it's showing capacity. Given that it's a Seagate, I wouldn't be surprised if it's failed. I actually had my own Wii drive recently fail after I pulled it from retirement to play a game with my nephews (Seagate).

And don't be so sure the guys here haven't heard of the format. You'd be surprised how many data recovery guys started off as console hackers. I know I did.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

guilty Your honour, was somewhere in the mix developing... read "ripping and modifying" the code for the 12c508's for the original PSX... All I will say. You sure did learn a lot back then, and no it wasn't about piracy as much as some would have you believe. I played virtually no games at all, a little duke nukem on my crappy PC, it was all about getting stuff working.

Just get a new disk, re-pirate your games and bask in the glory of denying some genius coder their living.

I once repaired an old PC and re-installed the front USB port cable to the wrong motherboard connector. That connector delivered 12v to both USB flash drives I inserted into the front USB port before I figured out what was up. Any chance you could have done the same and fried the TVS diodes of the external drive?

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

I'm with you. Most of my console hacking was on the original Xbox trying to upgrade the HDD and install XBMC so I could play DVD's and stream media from my computer to my TV (worked too). I may have copied a few games to the HDD, but I think they were all games I actually owned anyway. Hacking it was more fun than playing .

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company