External harddrive not recognized

[TheFamilyGuy]

I have an 80gb Acomdata external harddrive. It has been working fine up until yesterday. Now whenever I turn it on, a message pops up saying windows doesn't recognize it. Any suggestions?

 

[crjdriver]

Have you tried the drive in another system?

Does it show up in disk management?

 

[TheFamilyGuy]

Well I did try it on another computer and got the same message. And I dont know exactly what disk management is but it's not listed under hard drives in My Computer, which is how I usually access it

 

[wolfworx]

The first thing I do in situations like this is check all connections.

Turn the external drive on and off and verify you are getting power to the device -- I asume it has a power-on Light.
If everything look OK but your system still does not recognize the drive, try the following:

Shut down the computer.

If this is an external USB Box witha standard ATA drive inside, check the USB cable to make sure it is securely fastened. Turn off the power to the external box.

Restart your system. When your system comes up, turn on the external drive.

If your system still does not recognize it. Test the USB port with another device. If the other device does not work either, the problem is with the USB port. If the other device works, you know the USB port is OK so...

Try replacing the USB cable.

Open up the external enclosure and check the internal connections.

If your system still cannot recognize the drive, you may have a failed drive or faulty circuit board in the enclosure.

 

[crjdriver]

Disk management Start>Run type in diskmgmt.msc and hit enter. Note this is for xp or win2k; there is no DM in win9x.

I tend to think that if you tried the usb device in another system [and received the same message] the problem is either with the drive itself or the usb enclosure.

 

[TheFamilyGuy]

Alright, well it's not listed in disk management. I went through most of the stuff wolfworx suggested except taking apart the entire drive. Nothing worked. I don't undertsand why this would happen, all the drive does is sit on a table, I don't bang it around or anything like that. I just started it up one day and it wasn't recognized

 

[crjdriver]

HDs do die. I have had new drives die within hours of installing them. Drives are made much cheaper today than they were 10-15 years ago. If the drive is relatively new, it might still be under warranty. Many drives have a three year warranty.

 

[JohnWill]

The next step, other than shipping it back for warranty repair, is to remove the physical drive from the external case and install it into a desktop for further tests.

 

[TheFamilyGuy]

Ya it's only a few months old. Every computer in my house is a laptop, so I can't test with a desktop. So would it be best to take it back to Bestbuy?

 

[Hughv]

Ya it's only a few months old. Every computer in my house is a laptop, so I can't test with a desktop. So would it be best to take it back to Bestbuy?

If you have important files on the drive, your best bet is to remove the drive from the enclosure and connect it to another PC to see if the circuits in the enclosure have failed, as is often the case. It's possible this will invalidate the warranty.
If you have copies of these files, take it back for a warranty claim.
These drives are typically just a regular internal HD in a case, and removal is fairly easy.

 

[Hughv]

I have same problem with the HD not being recognized. However I do not recieve an error message? Only an alert sound when the HD is plugged in and powered on (i'm assuming this is a connection failure alert). In reviewing your comments to this user, I don't understand what you mean by "either with the drive itself or the usb enclosure". What is usb enclosure? and how do I test it? Thank you.

You'll get more attention if you start your own thread.

 

[dreaminn8]

Is there any clicking noise coming out of the drive when you try to use it?

 

[KonaB]

Yes

 

[dreaminn8]

Yes

So it might be some physical damage to the ineternal parts of the drive. Stop accessing the drive it will cause severe data loss situation.