My external hard drive was working fine till a few days and suddenly stopped showing on the USB drive of my desktop. I hear some scratch noise (as through something is rotating but getting hit at a certain point as it moves).
When I disconnect & reconnect to the USB, the desktop recognises a mass storage device but nothing happens after that. I am not seeing this device in "my computer" of Windows XP professional. All the other pen drives and other devices are being recognised by the USB. So I feel there is nothing wrong with the USB connection.
Any help? How can I recover my files before I ask anyone to work on it? Thanks
2007-11-03 01:15:03 · 7 answers · asked by Learner 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Add-ons
have you been properly removing it the way you should, or have you just been pulling out the USB cord when your done..if you dont properly remove the drive, it will go corrupt on you and be unusable...I learned this the hard way
just a sidenote- if you have Dell, Maxtor external hard drives are not compatible.
2007-11-03 01:37:01 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had the same experience, and no matter how I re-connected the drive, it still wouldn't show. I got a message through windows diagnostics that the device was working properly, but hadn't been initialised properly. To re-initialise it would have meant to lose all data. I then tried connecting it to my laptop (running XP rather than Vista), and it worked fine! It has also worked fine on my desktop, after re-connecting it through a different USB port.
Try that, before giving up on the drive.
2007-11-03 08:27:52 · answer #2 · answered by AndrewG 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I hate to say this, but I've heard that sound many times before from both internal and external hard drives, and it almost always means, "dead hard drive"
You could try searching in the device manager for a device conflict, while in the device manager, you could also try unplugging the external HD, uninstalling it from the device manager, then restart your pc, plug the HD back in, and re-install it. If this doesn't work, the possibility points strongly to a deceased hard drive.
2007-11-03 08:21:17 · answer #3 · answered by bush_is_human_filth 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the drive is defective you would a professional to get your files off of it. I gather from your writing that you do have a working knowledge of computers so forgive me if you have already tried this. Power down the computer and restart it with the external drive still plug in. Good luck.
2007-11-03 08:24:34 · answer #4 · answered by Petwanel 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go take it and see if it works in a friends computer or something. Chances are that if it does, then it is your computer. But, you should be able to get the data off it if it is broken. Just google or ask a local technology store. Good luck man,
~Seth
2007-11-03 08:19:51 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
it sounds like the drive is fried to me
2007-11-03 08:18:08 · answer #6 · answered by mickstocks2 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
try all steps below on website
Storage: External hard drive not recognised. Please help
2007-11-03 08:20:32 · answer #7 · answered by Tubby 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋