**sigh** My Win 10 PC is not backing up to external USB hard drives. Those drives don't show up in Disk Management, error message says "unable to connect to virtual disk services".

A YouTube vid has me follow a path to here, choose "automatic" (it had been manual), hit "apply", "start", "ok". No go, still no disk management.



I've tried a "sfc/scannow" from the command prompt, can't do a "chkdsk", it won't do an NFST formatted drive.

Help

External disk is connected to an USB port?
Is it always the same?
If you disconnect it and then plug it back in, will W10 recognize and Open it?

Sometimes a little energy fluctuation in the USB port might lead to the drive not being recognized properly (disk not formatted error nessage, etc).

If you are experiencing something simijar, DO NOT TRY TO FIX OR WRITE TO THE DRIVE. The issue most likely is not the drive. If you force writing to it you might worsen the situation.
You can try copying from it. Reading only, no writing.

If this USB rekated , you might try other things first


PS: I hate my iPhone. I’m a Certt Spelling Nazi. I type one rhing, the iphone tries to encrypt it.
0-0

Yes, connected via USB. I can disconnect the drive and reconnect, it shows up.

I have a powered USB hub my back up drives were on (I back up with Windows built in service and VEEAM). I've tried the PC's built in USB connections with no change in my problems.

The Windows back up has been hinky for a long time, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's an SSD the drive the other physical disks. I'm going to disconnect that SSD and look for a change.

FWIW the usb hub works with all other stuff, Logi receivers, printer, other secondary data hard drives.

Not to blame the USB ports directly , this is normally Power/PSU related.

Does your BIOS have any PSU diagnostics?

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quote:

Originally posted by 0-0:
Not to blame the USB ports directly , this is normally Power/PSU related.

Does your BIOS have any PSU diagnostics?

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I don't know, it's been years since I've had need to access the BIOS. As I remember my Dell PC makes it difficult to get into, pushing the right key on startup and timing it just right in a very narrow time window.

Any advice for accessing BIOS on a Dell computer?

F2, F11 or Del are the options that cone to mind.

0-0

quote:

Originally posted by Ripley:
Any advice for accessing BIOS on a Dell computer?

press the F12 key several times at the Dell logo screen during startup and select BIOS Setup or System Setup from the menu? That's the way I get to the BIOS on my work computer.

I've seen some similar connection issues but never really dug into it.
If only using a direct connection on another port then why not do that?
Sometimes an USB connection can have some physical connection issues and you are just off with simply trying another port.
Maynot get to the root of your issue but if it solves the problem .... ?

Acquiring an externally-powered USB portable drive caddy might be the ticket. Bus-powered USB is very prone to intermittent and permanent troubles.

Also check power management settings regarding USB 'selective suspend.'

Thanks so far everyone. I'll try the BIOS access tips and I also found another back door that almost got me there (one menu choice not offered ) I'm going to have to find at least an afternoon of free time to explore solutions, might be a couple days before I can update. I'm feeling naked without my backups working.

Many external hard drives come with software installed in them for using them for backups. I suspect that this software re-writes the header for the drive so it can function as a Virtual Disk instead of as a external drive.

Things now work, I have no idea why. I tried several things with no success it seemed. I wish I'd learned something.

Once again, thanks all but I do have a couple questions --

quote:

Originally posted by 83v45magna:
Also check power management settings regarding USB 'selective suspend.'

???

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
Many external hard drives come with software installed in them for using them for backups. I suspect that this software re-writes the header for the drive so it can function as a Virtual Disk instead of as a external drive.

Rewrites the header?