External drive problem

[bajason00]

recently, my maxtor 3100 personal storage device stopped working. xp is not recognizing the drive. the green power light is on, but i believe there should also be an amber light that lights up when running properly. it does not sound like the disk is spinning. it has mostly baby pictures on it that i really do not want to lose. are there any options other than sending in to a data recovery firm?
thank you!

 

[chamillitarysk8]

hook it up in your pc as a slave drive

 

[gavinseabrook]

Well, since it is an External, you really cant tell it to be master or slave (UNLESS it is a drive enclosure that you put your own drive into). I would say try plugging it in to you comp, and going to two places.

1st:

Start>Control Panel>Administrative tools>Computer management>Disk management

See if your drive appears here and check the status of it. (You should be able to tell which one it is due to size)

2nd:

Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer>System

Look for any errors related to "DISK", you can double click the line of text it is on and it will give you information. Please post EVENT ID, Source, and description if you find anything there.

 

[bajason00]

Not found under disk management

Does this help?

Event ID: 4311
Source: NetBT
Description: Initialization failed because the driver device could not be created

Ive also read elsewhere that putting the drive in the freezer can help. Is this safe? and is it worth trying?
thanks!

 

[chamillitarysk8]

oh the device driver is corrupted try reinstalling it if it came with a cd if not look under add remove programs look for a driver for it uninstall it and hook the drive back up

 

[nickc]

Ive also read elsewhere that putting the drive in the freezer can help. Is this safe? and is it worth trying?
thanks!

actually, that might be the answere if the drive is lost, not found by windows.

but if u try this only do it once as the next time u fill loose all.

 

[mikescorpio81]

What size is your HDD? Is it a 2.5'' Laptop hard drive or a 3.5'' IDE hard drive? If the disk is not spinning, chances are it is either damaged sectors or not enough power. Did your drive come with an extra cable for power?

If you can't see your drive under disk management then this is a problem! Can you try the drive on another PC?

 

[bajason00]

3.5" drive. im going to try on another pc today. you think buying a new power cord will help?

 

[mikescorpio81]

If your drive does not spin, a power issue might be the problem. You could also try taking the HDD out of it's enclosure and istalling it inside your PC (cable select for jumper setting). If the drive still refuses to spin then it is dead, but if it does spin and Windows recognises it, the power cable might be the problem.

Let us know how you go RE: testing on another PC.

 

[stindle]

Not found under disk management

Does this help?

Event ID: 4311
Source: NetBT
Description: Initialization failed because the driver device could not be created

Ive also read elsewhere that putting the drive in the freezer can help. Is this safe? and is it worth trying?
thanks!

Just aquick FYI on event ID 4311, you will sometimes get the id if the hardware is not seen by xp and xp is told to install the driver. The driver will go to install but it will not see the failed drive and then it will give you 4311.

I know not much help but I would go with the drive and/or the power supply being dead

Good luck

 

[gavinseabrook]

http://eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=4311&eventno=910&source=NetBT&phase=1

See if any of these solutions help you