USB HDD not being recognized...

[carrion]

Well, hello to all.

I'm seeming to have a HUGE problem. I've had a 200GB external HDD for probably a year now and it's worked great for me until just recently. I've noticed that once in a while, the HDD would lose power then restart and repeat that for several seconds.

After noticing this behavior I decided it was times to go out and get a backup means of storing my data. But, no sooner had I decided to backup my backup data, the HDD seemed to just die on me.

Here's what's happening from what I can tell. Whenever I power on the HDD, the USB system tray icon appears, but it no longer displays the little pop-ups about it detecting new drivers and all that blah. Also, the HDD no longer shows up in the My Computer listing.

I've done some other research on the problem and I found one situation similar to mine in these forums but the end solution ended up not being the one I needed. Their solutions were for USB devices that hadn't been used before. Meaning they just said to format/partition the disk and that should've done it. But, I definitely don't want to do that. I have many many MANY files I really NEED to keep.

If anyone can possibly help me I'd be greatly appreciative. I suppose if I can fix this issue, then I will definitely need a means of backing up the backup, or at least getting a more dependable means of storing data. Let me know if you need any more info. I'd be glad to help you out.

PS. Here's what I'm running:

OS: Windows XP Professional SP2
MOBO: ASUS P4P800SE
RAM: 1GB Corsair XMS
VIDEO: Nvidia 6800
SOUND: SB Audigy 2 ZS Pro
HDD: 40GB SATA 10,000RPM
EXTERNAL DEVICES: Fantom Drive 200GB USB HDD

 

[nellakita]

try deleteing the usb drivers--- in control panel/system/hardware/device manager
than reboot your computer it should automaticly reinstall the drivers for the usb this most of the time works when drivers quit working or become corrupted---i hope this helps you

 

[carrion]

Well thanks for the tip. I can't test it right now but I'll be sure to reply if it does work later. And also, I'm not sure if this matters much but I've also tried the drive on another computer. That computer also had the same issues as the computer I first tried it on. If the drivers were bad, wouldn't that make the problem local to the first computer and not the rest of them?

 

[nellakita]

ya know, it could also be a faulty connection in the unit its self it is strange that the problem persists even on anouther comp which is making me kinda think that you may have a broken wire or loose connection you may wont to try taking it in somewere and getting someone to test every wire to make sure there is a solid connection with a ohm reader or something like that
agian this is a guess

 

[carrion]

Well, I'm getting a little P.O.'d. After asking a co-worker about it, he suggested I pull the HDD out of the enclosure in case that was the problem. Well, it wasn't. I also checked the Windows MMC and from what I can tell, my drive is recognized, BUT, for some reason, Windows isn't/can't read the drives partition. In looking in the MMC, it said the device had about 180GB if "Unallocated" space. Grrrr!!! I'm gonna bash some faces...not yours of course but faces in general will be bashed lol. Anyway, I want to avoid taking it in for repairs because I don't trust techs. There is no guarantee that they'll even try to preserve my data. It's mostly music but it's still about 1 years worth of my downloads/product keys/games that I don't want to have to go out and get again lol.

Anyway enough of my rambling. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll make sure to post back if I find the solution.

 

[patio]

You might want to consider a powered USB hub...not a big investment and it just might solve the problem.

patio.

 

[TheTechGeek]

Email me at techgeek2005@hotmail.com if still have hard drive problems.

I have something that would probably work for your situation.

 

[ZorK]

I have something that would probably work for your situation.

Post then?