Is my external usb hard drive broken?

[Stevesoura]

Not sure where to put this topic but I guess this is close enough. I tried to look for answers on google but lead to dead ends. My issue is with my external usb harddrive. Its a 120gb fujitsu 5400rpm. I have had it for 3 months and works fine until now. It is just my main storage to keep things. I plugged it in a moment ago and nothing happens. I hear the disk spinning and ticking but dont see it in My computer and disk management. I dont see it anywhere. It usally pops up with autoplay. Im getting worried because I have stored allot of my life pictures on here. Can you guys help.

I have also tried exchanging adapters and nothing works. It

[mgo]

USB drive. I plugged it in a moment ago and nothing happens. I hear the disk spinning and ticking but dont see it in My computer and disk management. I dont see it anywhere. It usally pops up with autoplay. Im getting worried because I have stored allot of my life pictures on here. Can you guys help.

Did you try a re-boot of your computer? If and when you get the drive working again copy your files over to another location as soon as possible. The USB drive may be failing mechanically.

[Brad]

When you say you tried exchanging adapters do you mean other USB enclosures? Have you tried another computer? Is the ticking you describe the same as you have always heard from this drive?

Brad

[Stevesoura]

Yes I tried another usb enclosure and it still does not work. I have also tried another computer. The ticking sounds normal but its a repeat tick. It ticks for five seconds then silent then clicks five seconds again. Also, when I plug it into any computer, there is a major lag on the computer.

I did plug it into a mac and it does reconize it but it does not load any files. On the mac, it reconize that there is information in there by using the "get info" function.

[Brad]

That repeated ticking sound to me means a seek error. Not a good sign. Is there another backup somewhere else?

See if the drive manufacturer offers any type of diagnostic. You could use the Hitachi Drive Fitness test which can be downloaded from HGST.com. If the drive is not recognized in the BIOS the Hitachi program would not work.

Brad

[frankiepankie]

In Windows XP, do Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc

And look if there is an partition on your external disk, if not, create one (watch out that you don't format your main disk )

[Stevesoura]

In Windows XP, do Start > Run > diskmgmt.msc

And look if there is an partition on your external disk, if not, create one (watch out that you don't format your main disk )

Will this format the external drive? I wanted to keep my files in tact. There are allot of value in the drive, like my wedding pictures. My wife will kill me for sure.

[Stevesoura]

Wait, it doesnt matter either way because Disk magagement does not even reconize the external disk.

[Tin Star]

Are you running external power for the external drive. My TP will not power my drive even using dual cables. All my other laptops will power it but there seems to be a power issue with TP.

[Stevesoura]

I am use only one power usb right now. Im not sure why it would have a effect now since I been using one since I got it. It seems to have worked fine until late last night. I think Im screwed on this one.

[Stevesoura]

Ok, I switched out my xp for vista and plugged in the external harddrive. Vista reconizes the harddrive but "computer management" says not responding when the external harddrive is on. Any ideas?

[hart22]

There are allot of value in the drive, like my wedding pictures. My wife will kill me for sure.

If the files are that valuable, like wedding pictures of which you have only the copies on that drive, there's always the last resort option of going to a professional data recovery provider and extracting the data that way. It's pretty expensive, but unless you've somehow managed to shatter the physical disc platters or heat the thing and ruin the magnetic patterning they should be able to get that data out. So if in the end nothing works go to a professional if it's the data, not the drive, that matters.

[ryengineer]

Steve, what kind of computers do you own?

List the PC's and Macs you've tried the drive on thus far.

Also, what did you do with the drive the last time it was working? Remember the tasks you performed on it, did you use it with any backup software?

You may note that Windows and Mac don't recognize a drive if it hasn't been partitioned in a common format that both systems understand.

In addition, if you password protect a drive in the BIOS of a thinkpad then it would never be detected by any other machine via USB adapter.

[Stevesoura]

I've used it on a X60, Hp dv6000, and a mac mini. The last thing I did was move some work files(word and excel), Pictures, and a couple of videos. I never used any back-up software on this thing.

I know that when I plug in the harddrive, all computers freezes and does not respond. Will for the most part, the system does not respond, but internet does.

[mgo]

I've used it on a X60, Hp dv6000, and a mac mini. The last thing I did was move some work files(word and excel), Pictures, and a couple of videos. I never used any back-up software on this thing.

I know that when I plug in the harddrive, all computers freezes and does not respond. Will for the most part, the system does not respond, but internet does.

Now that you have included a little more information your USB drive seems to be acting like one of mine did a year ago.

The drive would mechanically run, but the computer it was plugged in to would lock up. Apparently the computer's operating system was overwhelmed by the USB and could not load it.

My USB drive had become hopelessly full.

I never got a "drive full" message, it simply refused to load when plugged in.

Since I had a special drive recovery utility I was able to run that and fix the problem.

Since you likely do not have that utility (SpinRite) the only thing I can think of is to plug in the USB drive and let it sit there for a few hours and see if it will finally respond.

[Stevesoura]

Ok, I gave up on this drive. I have never been frustrated enough to take a hammer to. Good bye to this drive and my files. I want to thank everyone that has given me tips and really do appreciate your time. Time to relieve some stress and play world of warcraft now.

[mgo]

Ok, I gave up on this drive. I have never been frustrated enough to take a hammer to. Good bye to this drive and my files. I want to thank everyone that has given me tips and really do appreciate your time. Time to relieve some stress and play world of warcraft now.

My personal thought is you are quitting too soon.

Try Googling for some sort of recovery program (the kind that uses a boot disk and runs outside of the operating system, or look around the Dallas area for a recovery service.

The data (or most) of it is there, you just are unable to get to it due to some sort of hardware failure.

Heck, spend $70.00 or so for Spinrite, and try it at least. It's worked for me. That would be cheaper than hundreds of dollars for a service. That program would be useful later on, too when some other drive gets goofy on you.

[boofoo]

Try Googling for some sort of recovery program (the kind that uses a boot disk and runs outside of the operating system, or look around the Dallas area for a recovery service.

Good advice. Here's one such disk I've used to save an external drive whose partition table became corrupted:

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

In fact many CD-based linux distributions such as Knoppix have all the rescue function you'd need.