Serious Problem with External HD ?

[SonikDeath]

My Western Digital External Harddrive stopped working a few days ago, and i dont know why.

It still turns on and everything but it wont show up in my computer or in disk management. And in the bar where it shows all usb devices it says that there is no drive letter.

I cant open it which is bad because ive got alot of stuff on there.

Any help.

Thanks.

 

[Malice]

are you sure your USB cables and ports work?
make sure those work...

try another hard drive on them if possible...
you might be able to use SPINRITE on it...great tool...costs money though

 

[JaD]

Haha! You and me have the same hard drive! I've had hiccups with mine as well. I have the WD 500gb one. I think I've had mine for a year and a half. Something that worked for me during a severe error, was constantly rebooting/unplugging/taking aspirin for the headaches and running 'Disk Checks' on it. I think what it came down to in the end, (because it runs for me still now, although my iTunes folder (30gigs of music) is empty, hopefully those files will be recovered soon) is that you shouldn't run that thing 24/7 and everything off of it. Split computer programs and tasks between your computer hard drive and hdd so it balances out. That's my theory, at least. I hope I can get that music back though, grrr. Not sure why that folder is only read as a 'File' now and empty (although the information on the drive still shows 30+gigs of used space unaccounted for)

 

[Mixairian]

Put your ear next to the device.

If you hear clicking, grinding, or a high pitched whirring; you're screwed.

If you hear nothing wrong, the enclosure may have gone bad. If that's the case, you can buy a new enclosure kit and take the HDD out of the old one.

 

[ComicChick]

mine did that once and i unplugged it and left it out for a while, and plugged it in later and it worked fine

 

[JaD]

^ Yeah, I've done that too and that helps. Sometimes giving it a few days unplugged and on the side will get it running normal again.

 

[SonikDeath]

Ok, i guess ill try not turning it on for a few days and see if that helps.

 

[Mixairian]

If it does work, back up your data to another external HDD immediately. If it's the device, fine but if the HDD is on the outs, you want to salvage your data while you can. Data Recovery services are expensive.

 

[adam-red]

It might also be worth seeing if it shows up in something like Knoppix if it does (which has happened to me before) then you can always drag the data over to another device.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

This happened to my friend. He just took out the hard drive and put it in his computer. Probably the best solution.

 

[Mixairian]

So. Is it the HDD or the enclosure?