Windows 7 Ford Sync/Win 7 & Fat32 drive question

N

nanllyn

New Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2009
Messages
6
I have a new Ford that has the Ford Sync. I've had trouble finding something to work with Ford Sync from all kinds of usb thumbdrives, to Zune, to portable usb drive. I want it to show the artist/song title on the screen and be able to use voice commands to play songs/artists, etc. The only thing I could get to work was a USB portable Seagate 500GB portable hard drive. Solely powered by USB. It is the only thing that has worked properly in the Ford. I had to format it with Fat32 Format program before Ford Sync would recognize it. It formatted it to FAT32 and both my XP and Win 7 computers recognized it. I even put lots of media on it a few different times in the last week.
It still works with the Ford just fine but I wanted to add some of my new cd's to the hard drive and all of a sudden neither the XP or the Win 7 recognize it. It comes up as a drive in "My Computer" and "Computer Management" >"Storage" but if I try to access it, it gives me a screen saying it needs to format the drive. Which I don't want to do and lose my mp3's on there.
Why can you no longer see the drive? Did I do something wrong (although I would have no idea what. I only plug and unplug it into the Ford USB port and then into my computer to add songs). Is there anyway to correct this without having to reformat? I don't want to lose the files on the drive as it took time to tag them correctly so Ford would read them correctly.
Thanks for your help.
P.S. I have a blank hard drive from an old laptop 160GB that I also used the FAT32 Format program on but it won't show up a a drive period. I know it is getting power as the lights come on but nothing more. Any thoughts on this?
 
Solution
It seems like there could be a couple of issues causing your USB hard drive to not be recognized by your Windows XP and Windows 7 computers:
1. File System Corruption: The drive may have experienced file system corruption, causing Windows to prompt you to format the drive. This corruption could have occurred due to unplugging the drive without safely ejecting it or other factors.
2. Drive Letter Conflict: There might be a drive letter conflict that is preventing Windows from properly recognizing the drive.
To address the issue without formatting the drive and risking data loss, you can try the following steps:
### Steps to Try:
1. Check Drive in Disk Management:
- Right-click on "My Computer" or "This PC" and...
Sort by date Sort by votes
It seems like there could be a couple of issues causing your USB hard drive to not be recognized by your Windows XP and Windows 7 computers:
1. File System Corruption: The drive may have experienced file system corruption, causing Windows to prompt you to format the drive. This corruption could have occurred due to unplugging the drive without safely ejecting it or other factors.
2. Drive Letter Conflict: There might be a drive letter conflict that is preventing Windows from properly recognizing the drive.
To address the issue without formatting the drive and risking data loss, you can try the following steps:
### Steps to Try:
1. Check Drive in Disk Management:
- Right-click on "My Computer" or "This PC" and select "Manage."
- Go to "Disk Management" under "Storage."
- Look for your USB drive in the list of drives and check if it shows as "Healthy." If it's listed there, you might be able to recover the data without formatting.
2. Change Drive Letter:
- In Disk Management, right-click on the USB drive.
- Select "Change Drive Letter and Paths."
- Click "Change" and assign a different drive letter to the USB drive.
- Check if the drive is now accessible in File Explorer.
3. Use Data Recovery Tools:
- If changing the drive letter doesn't work, try using data recovery tools like Recuva or EaseUS Data Recovery to retrieve your files before attempting any fixes that might alter the data on the drive.
4. Check Disk for Errors:
- Open Command Prompt as an administrator.
- Type chkdsk /f X: (replace X with the drive letter assigned to your USB drive) and press Enter.
- This command will check and fix any errors on the drive.
As for the blank 160GB hard drive from an old laptop that isn't showing up at all, it could be a hardware issue. You may need to check the connections or try it on a different system to determine if the drive is functional.
By following these steps, you can hopefully resolve the issue with your USB hard drive without having to reformat it and risk losing your music files.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
  • Solved
Windows 7 Simple Hard Drive Question
Replies
6
Views
3K
MikeHawthorne