Cruzer destroys d-drive!

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1

A Sandisk Cruzer just destroyed my harddisc!

I have a HP Workstation, with 2 harddisks. One which is my C-drive where all my programs are installed, one is my D-drive where my data is stored. This PC is connected to our network, so I also have a dozen other drives (ranging from F to Z).

A collegue can to me with a 4BG Sandisk Cruzer (micro), SDCZ6-4096RB, with a PDF which he need to be printed.

So I plugged in into my USB port. Windows 7 immediatly reported that the connection to my D-drive was lost and that possible dataloss had occured!!! I thought, WOW, that’s not a good thing!

I opened another Windows Explorere and I saw that the Cruzer had created a Virtual CD-Rom as my D-drive!!! The Virtual CD-Rom had claimed the D-drive!

I quickly copied the PDF from the Cruzer to my desktop and I disconnected the Cruzer (with the remove hardware icon).

As soon as I disconnected the Cruzer, the warning also disappeared, so I could not take a screenshot of the message.

But I still have lost my D-drive…reboot…nothing…

Our ICT guy logged-in as administrator…no second harddisc…

Nothing.

Is there a known issue with the Cruzer that it claims a drive-letter which is already in use by Windows, thus corrupting hard-disks?

2

Just to make things clear:

Before the Cruzer was connected, the drivemappings of my pc were

C - Harddisk 1

D - Harddisk 2

F - Network

G - Network

K - Network

M - Network

N - Network

Q - Network

Z - DVD-Drive

When Cruzer was connected, the drivemappings of my pc were

C - Harddisk 1

D - Vitrual CD-ROM (Cruzer)

E - USB Storage (Cruzer)

F - Network

G - Network

K - Network

M - Network

N - Network

Q - Network

Z - DVD-Drive

After the Cruzer was disconnected, I still could not see my second harddisk.

Administrator tools (like disk management) cant see the second harddisk.

The bios cant see the second harddisk.

3

Windows is notorious for misassigning drive letters to removable devices.  Normally you just open a Windows Disk Management window and reassign a drive letter to your Data drive.  But you said you’ve done that and couldn’t see it and that your BIOS no longer sees the drive either. 

Did the BIOS see a 2nd hard drive previously?  Usually multiple drive senarios like your’s are simply multiple partitions created on a single hard drive, thus the BIOS doesn’t see them.  It only sees the hard drive itself.

The Partition Table is stored in the Master Boot Record, if your IT dept backs up your system periodically ask if they backup the MBR also and if they do they need to restore yours.  If they don’t then they will have to reallocate the Data partition and restore it from the last backup they made of it.

If you did indeed have a separate physical hard drive and the BIOS use to see it when booting then you have a hardware problem; the power to the drive is lost or the cable connecting it to the mainboard is off or loose.  You will to get your IT people to open the case and see what’s going on.

hth

4

Hi Ed,

Thanks for your reply.

I have a physical second hard drive. I will have our IT department open my PC a have them check out what’s going on.

I will report back when I have got some more information

5

Have them also check Storage under Computer Management and see if it is exactly the same on what you described. checking log files under event viewer helps too.