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My sister had a black out and her computer was on, along with her external hard drive that was plugged into her computer. Her external hard drive when plugged in says that it finds a new hardware like regular. When she trys to go and use it, it doesn't show up, you can't see it anywhere. In device manager it shows it in there. Anyone know why? Also the computer now has alot of space taken up since the black out. Before it was like 10-15 Gb of space taken up now its like 35 Gb of space taken up what could cause that. a worm or virus? Could a worm or virus get in when the computer when the computer was going through the black out? Could it be that when the black out happened the lightning hit the house and the went through the electrical socket to the computer and messed that up and then throught the external hardrive and locked it up from giving information out but its still working and holding the information. Or could it be a somehow magnetic thing when the house was hit by lightning?