External HD stopped responding

[BoredNow]

The other day my OLD HD stop responding, it would take a couple minutes to be recognized by windows and sometimes windows would say "You need to format this drive to use it" - (I never did btw) - I just restarted the computer.

However...

When it WAS recognized it would not respond and I could not play the recorded TV - WMC would hang.
Also, if I tried to open a file it would hang.
I figured the drive had died and I bought a replacement from another maker (seagate) and all seemed well for a couple of days until I got another popup from Windows saying I needed to format the drive to use it. (I did not)

I restarted the computer and the drive was recognized and everything is working as normal (no hanging).

Also - the new drive letter was named (D) - which is also my external CD/DVD drive which is only plugged in when I play a movie (which is rare) or (god forbid) reinstall Windows.

So my questions are -
(1) If I change my new drive letter to (E), will WMC play the copyrighted TV?

(2) If I change my CD/DVD player drive letter to (E) can it still be used to (god forbid) reinstall windows? Is there something in BIOS that would insist that the drive letter be (D) ?

(3) Why is this happening?
FYI - I plugged in my OLD HD to a different computer and the "hanging" problem persisted, which is why I figured it had died, but now I'm getting the "must reformat" message with this NEW HD. I worried that the next time I reboot the new HD will not be recognized and hang like my old HD.

Thanks

[christoph86]

I can try and help with #3. I had this issue with a Seagate external hd as well. First go to power options in control panel, click on the change plan settings under the one which you have checked, click change advanced power settings, then look under USB settings and make sure selective suspend is disabled. This will ensure your USB port stays active.

If you unplug the USB cable from the computer without hitting the safely remove hardware button in your task bar and ejecting the hard drive, you will get the error for reformatting and driver not recognized. If you are already getting this message, click no on the reformat, then simply pulling the USB cable out and putting it back in will get it recognized properly again. But going forward, try to safely eject it before you unplug the USB cable for the hard drive.

[WScottCross]

So my questions are -
(1) If I change my new drive letter to (E), will WMC play the copyrighted TV?

(2) If I change my CD/DVD player drive letter to (E) can it still be used to (god forbid) reinstall windows? Is there something in BIOS that would insist that the drive letter be (D) ?

(3) Why is this happening?
FYI - I plugged in my OLD HD to a different computer and the "hanging" problem persisted, which is why I figured it had died, but now I'm getting the "must reformat" message with this NEW HD. I worried that the next time I reboot the new HD will not be recognized and hang like my old HD.

Thanks

(1) The drm keys necessary to play protected content are stored on your system drive. You move the recorded files anywhere you like. As long as you play them back on the same machine that recorded them, they will play.

(2) Changing the drive letters shouldn't break anything unless a program is set to look at a drive letter and most of those should let you select it after the change. Loading Windows from the drive doesn't look at drive letters anyway so reloading Windows is a non-issue.

(3) Some things to check are; the port and cables you are connecting the drive with. It could also be drivers if you've updated those recently.