External Hard drive stopped working.

[zerosl]

Ok, ive read all the previous threads in many places.

This is a description of my problem.

I just got setup my external hard drive. I put much stuff on my drive and then disconnected it. Later today I did connect it. it made the usb connected sound, i checked my device manager and it says my USB device under Disk Drives. It does NOT show up under my computer. I have already uninstalled the driver and reinstalled it by A) manually hitting reinstall and B) restarting my computer with the driver uninstalled.

STILL nothing. It does NOT show up under disk management under computer management under admin tools.

It has had the same problem in every other computer i have connected it to. I cannot reformat because it does not detect correctly.

In Device manager it says the device is working properly.

help. i just got this drive today and would really like all the stuff i backed up.

 

[Nodsu]

Take the hard drive out of the encloosure and connect it directly to the (S)ATA interface in your computer.

 

[Rick]

Nodsu's advice is good. That way we can rule out the enclosure being the issue.

Check the jumpers on the drive too. They should be set to 'Single Master' or Master, not Slave, Cable select or 'Master with Slave'

 

[zerosl]

its a laptop...

 

[Nodsu]

Use a friend's computer or maybe visit your local friendly computer repair shop and let them have a look?

 

[zerosl]

you know, strangely enough, it just started working again.

i have no idea why it just began to work as it was not the computer restarting that fixed it. because i did that over 10 times yesterday.

wow well, thats a load of good luck for me.

thanks for your help anyway guys

 

[Rick]

you know, strangely enough, it just started working again.

i have no idea why it just began to work as it was not the computer restarting that fixed it. because i did that over 10 times yesterday.

wow well, thats a load of good luck for me.

thanks for your help anyway guys

No, that's not good luck. It should work 100% of the time, otherwise it is probably failing.

Since you're using it on a laptop, is the drive USB powered? Occasionally, USB powered drives don't get enough power from the USB port. This seems especially true with laptops for some odd reason... And I've seen laptops that would run an external drive via USB port only when plugged in... not on battery power.

Tinker with it some more.

 

[zerosl]

the drive is external power sourced so its not the power. the power supply is good, as i checked the surge protector and all.

as far as im concerned, it may have been a one time glitch. if it happens again, i will check it again.