Data Recovery Case File · Portable Drives · Unplug It
A Host Waiting on a Drive That Will Not Answer
His enquiry reported two symptoms that look separate and are the same thing seen twice. A portable drive that "has stopped working. When I plug it into my PC, the disk shows but no disk size is showing, and file explorer doesn't stop loading at the top. I am not able to open the drive." A device present without a capacity, and a file manager stuck loading indefinitely. Both describe a host asking questions that never get answered — and the practical consequence is immediate, because leaving it connected means those questions are being asked over and over against a drive that is struggling to respond.
| Media | Portable external hard drive — enumerating without reporting capacity; host file manager remaining in a perpetual loading state |
| Reported situation | Drive appearing on connection · no capacity reported · file manager continuously loading · drive not openable · contents required |
| Fault class | Enumeration succeeding while identify and read requests time out — service area or readiness failure behind a functioning interface |
| Equipment used | Drive disconnected rather than left attached · removed from the enclosure and assessed on a native connection · identify response and readiness sequence read directly under strict timeouts · PC-3000 Express technological-mode service-area assessment |
The decode: one fault, two symptoms, and why to unplug
What appearing without a size means: the drive completed the introduction its interface requires — it drew power, its enclosure bridge announced a device, and the system created an entry for it. But capacity is not part of that introduction. Capacity comes from asking the drive to identify itself and report its own geometry, which requires it to have spun up, become ready, and read its internal configuration from its reserved service area. A blank where the size should be means that question was asked and never answered.
Why the file manager loads forever: the same unanswered question from the other side. When a file manager is asked to show a device, it issues requests and waits. Storage requests are blocking by design — the system assumes a device will eventually respond, because devices normally do. A drive that never answers leaves those requests outstanding, and the loading indicator simply never resolves. It is not a display bug or slowness; it is an honest representation of a request with no reply.
Why the whole machine can feel affected: worth knowing, because it alarms people. Outstanding storage requests can hold up other operations that touch the same subsystem, so a single unresponsive drive can make an entire computer feel sluggish or partly frozen. Unplugging it restores everything immediately, which is often the first clue that the drive is the cause.
Why it must be unplugged now: this is the practical part. A connected drive in this state is being asked the same questions continuously — the system retries, background services enumerate, indexing attempts to reach it. So a drive that is struggling to complete its start-up is being made to attempt it over and over, indefinitely, for no benefit. It will not resolve by waiting. The position is established, and every additional minute connected is load on a failing mechanism.
What the fault usually turns out to be: most commonly the drive cannot read its own service area — the reserved region holding its firmware, defect maps and geometry, which it must read on every start-up before it can report anything. Sometimes it is mechanical: a drive that spins but cannot position its heads well enough to complete initialisation. Both sit below the filesystem and leave the data untouched.
What not to do: not accept a prompt to initialise if the drive ever does appear with a size, since that writes a fresh structure over the start of the media.
On the bench
The drive was disconnected rather than left attached, since a connected drive in this state is asked the same unanswered questions continuously by retries, background services and indexing, and will not resolve by waiting. It was removed from the enclosure and assessed on a native connection, with the identify response and readiness sequence read directly under strict timeouts — establishing precisely where start-up stopped rather than allowing the drive to exhaust itself retrying. Access then ran through the PC-3000 Express in technological modes with the service area assessed and repaired.
The outcome
The drive disconnected, assessed natively under strict timeouts and its service area repaired. Free assessment, one fixed written figure including VAT; where a drive has to be opened, 50% of parts and labour is payable upfront with the balance only on success — otherwise no recovery, no fee. The decode, for anyone whose drive shows without a size while the file manager loads forever: those are one fault seen twice. Appearing requires only the interface to announce a device; reporting capacity requires the drive itself to have started up and read its own configuration. And a file manager stuck loading is a request waiting on a reply that never comes. Unplug it — it will not resolve by waiting, and connected means continuous retry.
Drive with no size showing and a loading bar that never finishes
Unplug it now — it isn't going to resolve by waiting, and leaving it connected does real harm. Those two symptoms are one fault. A drive appearing at all only needs its interface to announce a device; reporting its capacity needs the drive itself to have spun up, become ready and read its own internal configuration. A blank where the size should be means that question was asked and never answered. The endless loading bar is the same thing from the other side — storage requests wait for a reply, because devices normally give one, so a drive that never answers leaves the request outstanding forever. That's also why your whole machine may feel sluggish. Meanwhile the system keeps retrying, so a drive struggling to start is being made to try over and over.
Unplug it — call Newcastle Data Recovery on 0191 406 1051; assessed on a native connection under strict timeouts, readiness sequence read directly, service area repaired in technological mode.
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Our case files are drawn from genuine enquiries received by our laboratory over the past ten years, anonymised to protect client confidentiality. Each one describes the diagnostic and recovery procedure our engineers apply to that fault, using the equipment listed.