Coaxing ACOMdata external drive back to life

[Robert Duggan]

Today, I powered up a 15-year-old ACOMdata 60GB external drive that has been in storage for most of that time. The model has 1 USB2 and 2 FireWire ports. Powering it up, there is a very noticeable click-uh-click...click-uh-click... sound that continues on and on and without the drive ever being detected by my computer. Am thinking the drive is probably toast. Would others reading this forum agree that the drive is very likely toast?

 

[DelJo63]

click-uh-click...click-uh-click...

that's the drive attempting to self-calibrate to cylinder-0.
Power off for 30secs and then retry; Repeat 3-4 times MAX. If it doesn't come online - - yep, it's toast imo.

 

[PCTEACHER05]

Not to mention that external drives of any brand rarely last longer than 5 years of regular usage. Having been stored for a decade or longer never been turned on is akin to storing a car in a garage for 10 years and never having been started. The chances of it starting, even with a new battery is not good!

PCTEACHER05

 

[DelJo63]

@PCTEACHER05 hmm; my experience is quite contrary, both for HDs and stored cars (you only need to refresh the fluids)