External Hard Drive Problems

[ComicChick]

I figured i'd make a generic thread title so that if others experience problems with their external harddrives, they can use this thread too.

I have a Western Digital 500GB EHD, and recently it started to not register when i turned on my computer. It still powers up, but it doesn't show up when I go to My Computer.
I also tried swapping out the USB Cables.

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[Spidey-Bat]

This happened to my friend. He took it apart and put the hard drive in his computer.

 

[Kane52630]

have you gone on to Add Hardware in the Control Panel?

 

[ComicChick]

This happened to my friend. He took it apart and put the hard drive in his computer.

ha i'm not that smart to do that, im a bit of a tech blonde

have you gone on to Add Hardware in the Control Panel?

i didn't think of that, because it was already up and running so long, but i'll try that and see if it will find it again. thanks

 

[ComicChick]

ive tried the Add Hardware thing, and so far, it's not working.

I'm guessing I'll have to try and find the drivers disk and try that. i hope i still have it

 

[Malice]

Hard Drives....I have never actually needed a driver for a new hard drive...
Basically...if you are putting a drive in your PC...that uses the same BUS as an existing one or previous one...I have NEVER needed a driver...

Is this a USB drive?

 

[Malice]

I mean, is this one in a external permanent enclosure? or a hard drive that can be pulled from the enclosure and put in your pc

 

[Kable24]

CC are you getting any spinning of the drive or sounds from it when you plug it in to the computer?

 

[SsM]

I figured i'd make a generic thread title so that if others experience problems with their external harddrives, they can use this thread too.

I have a Western Digital 500GB EHD, and recently it started to not register when i turned on my computer. It still powers up, but it doesn't show up when I go to My Computer.
I also tried swapping out the USB Cables.

Any help is greatly appreciated

I have that problem when I insert memory cards from my camera into my PC.

 

[ComicChick]

CC are you getting any spinning of the drive or sounds from it when you plug it in to the computer?

i dont think so

before, when my computer would start up, itd turn on, and when it shut down, it would turn off

now i can turn it on and off whenever, but i dont think i get any spinning or sounds. i detach it tomorrow or wed and test that out

the rings still come on when i power it on though, dunno if that matters

 

[Asteroid-Man]

I have one. And I've also encountered this problem before. So look at things like this, a hard drive speaks a language and then USB runs another language. The two are not interchangeable so an external harddrive tends to have a few components.
1. The Harddrive
2. The USB Port/Out-Put Cable
3. A translation box (generally just a chip or something that translates the script from component 1 to something that can be passed through your computer VIA component 2.
4. Depending on your harddrive, sometimes they have their own power source and adapter (like yours) but sometimes they power off of the USB cable

The problem you have is with option 3. Your translator isn't working. This can be due to dropping the hdd, running a program that could attack your harddrive (many school servers are known to do this as their antivirus could be really crappy and just view everything incoming as a threat) or even from just unplugging the HDD without the "Safe Remove".

Solution? Buy another one, switch the translator and return the one you just bought and say you weren't happy with it. Dishonest, but it works

You could also pop the case, open a tower and install the harddrive in there. (It's actually not that hard and I could help walk you through it)

Or you could just get a new HDD.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

EDIT: Double Post

 

[Kable24]

If you can try it in another PC to see if it works and can be seen by the drive. Also switch out the usb cab;e if you can too.

 

[ComicChick]

its not a new one, so i can't take it back to the store.

i will try hooking it up to my laptop though. that's a good idea

i was thinking about getting a new one, but I'm getting a bonus at work soon for a great yearly evaluation so i was thiking about just putting it off and getting a new computer with a lot of space. the one i have is almost 6 yrs old

 

[ComicChick]

The problem you have is with option 3. Your translator isn't working. This can be due to dropping the hdd, running a program that could attack your harddrive (many school servers are known to do this as their antivirus could be really crappy and just view everything incoming as a threat) or even from just unplugging the HDD without the "Safe Remove".

ok i just reread this. while i was out of town, someone used my computer and never turned it off (without my consent, but that's another story) and when i got back my AVG said i had a bunch of trojans and stuff. i never really put two and two together because i only recently noticed the EHD not working, but now i'm thinking this is the reason

and if it is, i'll be very angry.