External Harddisc troubles

clercqer

clercqer

Senator oTO
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A request to the more technically inclined NMA'ers. My external HDD doesn't work anymore. I can still turn it on, and I can hear it spinning and whirring like a happy HDD, but my computer doesn't "read" the disk. It doesn't show up in My Computer. I've tried switching to a cable I know works, but apparently it's not the cable.

Is there any way I can recover the data stored on the disc?
 
If you can't get any computer to detect your hard drive, it's probably dead. The best you can hope for is that the part that died isn't the hard drive itself, but the little circuit board in the enclosure. If nothing else works, you can crack open the enclosure, take the hard drive out, and put it in your computer as a regular SATA drive. If it works, then you're in luck - either keep using it as an internal drive, or get a replacement enclosure.
 
If this is an external that uses a power supply (i.e. not USB for power), then a fault/short in the power supply cable could be causing the issue. Had that problem before.

If all fails, taking the drive out of the enclosure is a sensible suggestion. Depending on the drive, you might not have to break the case.
 
Tried different ports and different computers. I don't think it's the power supply cable since the light goes on and it whirrs around?

In any case, if it comes to opening her up and plugging her in my case's belly, is it really as simple as plugging it in? Or is some amount of DIY necessary?
 
clercqer said:
In any case, if it comes to opening her up and plugging her in my case's belly, is it really as simple as plugging it in? Or is some amount of DIY necessary?
Click to expand...
External hard drives are just regular hard drives enclosed in a special case. Getting them out of the case might be a pain, but after that it's smooth sailin'.
 
deadr4tz said:
clercqer said:
In any case, if it comes to opening her up and plugging her in my case's belly, is it really as simple as plugging it in? Or is some amount of DIY necessary?
Click to expand...
External hard drives are just regular hard drives enclosed in a special case. Getting them out of the case might be a pain, but after that it's smooth sailin'.
Click to expand...

Except if his PC is old and has no SATA ports, or his enclosure is old and features a PATA drive (while his case has no PATA cables).

But let's cross that bridge when we get here, I just like to nitpick :twisted:
 
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