[SOLVED] USB External Hard Drive Rendered Useless

@Canute > Are you getting an error message when you connect the USB drive to the computer? Does it ask you to format it?

There was no Error Message. I just could not "see" any Folders except for "Cue" and "Playlist". Even on a regular PC the Drive could not be read.  I also could not reformat it.  Seagate sent me a new HD yesterday. I was able to use one of Seagate's Utilities to "see" what was on the Drive.  It is replaceable.

I have two pieces of advice.  Limit the amount of folders on any Hard Drive being plugged into the MEP and use factory formatted Fat 32 Drives. I have no choice but to reformat my new replacement Seagate HD since it only comes in NTFS.

Chances are you simply damaged the file tables rather than actually wiping data from the drive.  I would suspect that if you used some data recovery tools, you'd be able to pull up the "missing" data.  This can happen if a file is in use when the drive is removed / unplugged.

Is there a limit to the size of the hard drive and amount of folders to have on a hard drive for use with the MEP? Which is better a 500Gig Hard Drive or 1T HD?  I have my Music Genres in Folders about 30 plus there are other stuff in folders in the same HD. What is the recommendation?

No limits, sort it as it works best for you but in order to keep it speedy, don't put more than 1000 files per folder.

It happened again. another HD rendered useless. I ejected it safely as outlined in the Manual.  Went to the Gig and tried to load my Playlist and got an error message for each song I tried to load. This after spending several hours updating my library and making new playlists.

Is the drive responding properly with your computer?

Now it isn't! All the music folders are now hidden. All i see on the MEP as well as on the Computer are two folders "Cue" + "Playlist"

I have several external HDDs (1TB, 320GB, 120GB), but onone is working with my MEP 7000. I have formated all of them FAT32 or 16 and stil not see them with my controler. Can anybody help me? 

Cosmin, You did not state if you ever got one to work. here is how you find it. 1.Turn on the MEP 2. Press the Browser Button , it should display Disc1, Disc 2, USB1, USB2, OC and Playlist. 3.Plug in your HD into one of the USB slots (USB1 is in the rear and USB2 is in the front), power the HD if it is AC powered.  You should then see the appropriate USB Display Screen light up. 4. Press the corresponding USB Button.  your files should appear in the left column of the screen. To see the contents of a folder from the left, press the small directional arrow on the right side above the Blue lighted button.  I hope this helps.

BTW I have ditched using a powered drive and I have been using a WD Passport which seems to be working fine so far. I reformatted it and wiped it clean before applying it for use with the MEP.

Canute, thank you for trying to help me, but you didn't answer my question.

None of my external HDD is working with my MEP. I can not see the external HDD on my MEP. I can see only the stick memory cads, but nothing larger then 30GB. I have tried to format a 120GB on FAT32 but I couldn'd. It is going only for exFAT or NTFS. If I split the HDD in partitions of 30GB each, than the drive let me to format it on FAT32, but in this case I can see only one partition of 30GB. So, please tell me the way to format my HDD to make it work with my MEP 7000. Thank you.

Canute, ...what kind of WD Passport are you talking about? Is this the way to see my HD on MEP? Can you please give me more details?

I am using a WD 500Gig Passport 2.0 Usb external/portable Drive. First I downloaded "Swiss Knife"   http://download.cnet.com/CompuApps-SwissKnife-V3/3000-2248_4-10070864.html which is a Freeware. I formatted it to NTFS first then reformatted it to FAT 32. That wipes off all the software that comes with the drive.  

Please note, try and stick with a USB 2.0 or a 3.0/2.0 and not just a 3.0 as this is the newer technology and may/may not work with the MEP. I always turn on the MEP first before plugging in the Drive(s) and then I make sure to eject it before turning off the MEP. Let me know if this helps.