Solved: partitions not seen anymore (not initialized)

[tcsenter]

Update - Solved!

I have Crucial M500 240GB SSD that I was using as external storage drive, through a USB 3.0 external enclosure, while setting up a new computer. I switched it between computers and the partitions are not seen anymore, I get the "must be initialized" prompt asking if I want to initialize as GPT or MBR. It was previously partitioned MBR.

I have one of these offline drive duplicators, if that could be of any assistance. I have NOT tried anything yet, except to plug it to the other PC on which it was working fine for three months now. Same thing there. HELP!

Oh and I did try removing it from the external enclosure, plugged it into that SYBA docking station, just to see if it was the external enclosure rather than the drive. It does the same thing!

 

[RecoveryForce]

I'd be happy to take a look at this remotely, if you'd like. It could be something as simple as a damaged MBR, but could imply that the SSD just failed physically.

 

[tcsenter]

That would be awesome. Should I open a ticket from your website?

 

[RecoveryForce]

That would be awesome. Should I open a ticket from your website?

No ticket necessary...otherwise I'd have to bill you for my time.

 

[Captain_WD]

Hey there tcsenter,

Do you use Safe Eject when plugging out the drive while in the enclosure? This function enables the OS to write a small bit of info on the drive that all transfers were completed successfully and nothing was lost in the cache. When plugged next time the OS (regardless if it's on the same computer or on a different one) checks for that tiny bit of info and if it's not there asks the user to format the drive or sees it as RAW format.
As RecoveryForce pointed out, it can also be a simple damaged MBR. I'd suggest to get the RAW values of the S.M.A.R.T. status and see what they'll show.

Captain_WD.

 

[tcsenter]

Thanks to Luke @ RecoveryForce, we got it sorted. The MBR was hosed for whatever cause, but the data was still there and recoverable.

@ Captain_WD, I habitually use the safe eject with all removable storage (except for optical) even though I always have removable drives configured for Quick Removal. Not sure what happened here, it's weird. Maybe this new (actually used off-lease) workstation I was setting up, plugged the external drive to, has an electrically wonky USB port or something.

At any rate, thanks for the replies!

 

[RecoveryForce]

I'm glad I was able to help.