Computer Hope

I HAVE A 500 GB PORTABLE HD THAT CAME WITH my new LG TV set and  had   t he movie "Frozen" in 3D. which I eventualy deleted it and sparingly used it to backup a system, which I used and deltedted that too. In the interim, I sparingly again used it to record tv shows from my PVR. It worked fine, the few times I used it, until this past weekend when i had set it to record a tv show and found later it did not record. When i checked my PVR and try to do a live recording, I got a message that no disc was found. I connected my HD to my desktop and got a message that it needs to be formatted. I though that odd , but i chose a quick format , and for a good 10-15 minutes all i got on the screen was the continous circle, and another message that i should check to see if its read only. My knowledge of HD;s is limited. Does anyone know what is going on with this HD?

You could download an evaluation copy of HD Sentinal from here https://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php
This will check the drive health and tell you at a hardware level if the drive is failing.
There is really many reasons a external hard drive won't read in more than 1 device. It is possible the PVR and LG TV don't support the power requirements  of your drive. Hd sentinel can tell you the current draw of your drive.
Also the drive will be formatted FAT 32 to be compatible with the TV this is limited to files of 2 GB or less is size.
If you disconnect the drive without properly un mounting it is very easy to corrupt the drive and make the files unreadable.
Also normally with recording TV it is restricted to only playing back on the device it is recorded on.
You may need to re partition the drive and re format it providing the HD sentinel shows the drive as being ok.

Thank you...I went to that link and its a bit confusing...Prof, standard, and one that says to use both, standard/Prof. Anyway I chose trial version. I never had partitioned or format the drive. I assumed that as long as there were a movie on it, it was prepared. As for viewing the recording, I was able to view them on both, the desktop and TV. What do you mean by unmounting?

How you un mount a drive depends on what device you have the drive plugged into. On a PC you select the usb device in the right corner of the windows screen then right mouse click on the usb device and select eject  what ever the device is called.

I used the unlimited trial version with both the HD in question and a usb drive where i downloaded the program. It only asked me if I want it to check my usb drive, and I said No, but it did not mention anything about my other drive. Perhaps it was not acknowledged, and if that being the case then I guess the HD is no good.

If you are running the program from a usb drive I suspect you downloaded the Dos version which doesn't support many drives as it is very old.
You need to run the software from Windows using the version from here https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_sentinel_professional.php
It will run for 14 days

PERHAPS MY WORDING WAS INCORRECT; i DOWNLOADED THE PROGRAM FROM ANOTHER PC ONTO MY USB DRIVE, WHICH I IN TURN INSTALLED IT ON MY LAPTOP VIA THE USB DRIVE. iS THAT THE SAME THING AS DOING IT FROM THE USB DRIVE? as for the Dos version...I made sure NOT to download it and the unlimited trial version was just above that and that was the one I downloaded and used.Now if the DOS is that trial version I have no way of knowing. I went to that second link and saw nothing that resembled a download of anything.

This is crazy. I just opened my dell laptop and noticed the first thing i saw was HD Sentinel asking me if I want to run it. I thought i did the other day, The one thing i did notice is that it was the  H D Sentinel Pro. I definitely did not download that version, unless of course if the one i did download, the unlimited trial version was the Pro version. If it was, it did not say it was the ro version, also why would they offer the Pro version as unlimited trial version? I did not install it.

Sorry i missed read your post , Yes you are running the pro version so if your drive is detected it should show it's health.

I believe i said in a previous post that only the usb drive was detected.

OK, i APOLOGIZE...i WENT BACK TO THE FIRST LINK YOU GAVE ME TO CHECK THE DOWNLOAD VERSION, AND IT SEEMS YOU WERE CORRECT THAT THE UNLIMITED VERSION WAS THE PRO. i EXTRACTED IT AND RAN IT AND THE ONLY THING IT ASKS THE USER WHAT FOLDER WOULD I be choosing and it shows my C drive. It does not show the hd i have connected to via a usb port. Does this mean its not fixable? aRE THERE ANY alternatives?

That sounds like the folder option when you are installing the program?

There is no folder selection when you run the program itself. I get this when I open the program for example:

IF YOU DON'T mind me asking, were you using a trial version or paid version? I will check again tomorrow and see if i could screenshot it and show it here.BTW, I think there was a Browse button, If so, I would check that out also.

My version does not look like what you show. I clicked on the Browse button and it brings up a list of my folders and anything connected to a usb port. It does not show my corupted hd;which ofcourse connected to a usb port.

It was the "Hard Disk Sentinel Professional Setup" program, after installation, of course. I have not paid for it. It seems the file downloaded is identical to the "Hard Disk Sentinel Trial" download; odd that they've provided separate downloads to the same file. I don't know where you might be seeing this browse button except perhaps as part of the installer for it?

More generally for the External HDD though- what you are describing does sound like the drive failed. Can you hear the drive spin up when it is powered on? Does it make any repeating noises or clicks?

You may see if the External drive is acknowledged in Disk Management when connected as well (diskmgmt.msc, the tool should show up if you put that into the start menu search).

I do hear a consistent soft spining an clicks or other sounds. If device management does see it, what would it tell me, and where would it take me from there?

I never went to device management in win 11 until now as i read your suggestion. Like I said earlier that the hd is spinning softly and no sound effects; In Dev Mang I do not see a diagrom of all my hd's like i have seen in previous window versions, but a list and one of them says "Disc Drives", which is the one I suppose to open....but for some strange reason i could not get the cursor to go to that link and open it up. Being a Novice in win 11, do you know how i or a better way to open dev mang.? I used the windows logo and R to emter tje syntax.?

OK, I had some luck this last time. The HD icon is shown as LG ( my TV ) and working properly. From past expieriences that response is typical even if you do have a problem, So we know its spinning contnously and soft with no weird sounds accompanying it, In Win 11 i do not see the typical layout that I have seen up to win 7, where you can add a drive letter, format, partition and etc, Perhaps its because I had changed win 11 start to a classic look, that is why i get a list of folders when i go to
Devmgmt.msc. Not knowledgable about HD's in this case, is there any other way to try and format the portable drive?

The cliks are definitely a good sign...how old is this drive ? ?

If you review BC-Programmer's 2nd reply you will find that he asked if the external drive was acknowledged in "DISK" Management and not device management.
Right click on the Windows logo and select Disk Management from the resulting menu.

Windows acknowledge it and "Disk management does also. The reading says: 465  76 gb Raw   Healthy primary partition. So where does that leave me? Apparently, I cannot use it again as my PVR recorder, cause it would not do so anymore. Should I attempt to reformat it?