big trouble with external HD

[Kevin5255]

I got a 160gb Maxtor OneTouch for pretty cheap on dealnews.com (great site for deals by the way) during the summer past. It's been going well but lately it has been refusing to turn on and when it does turn on, it isn't recognized by the USB port (no standard chime that a USB device is connected). But sometimes it works fine, and other times when I switch it on the light on the front is normal, then goes very dim for a few minutes, then goes normal again and my computer sees the drive. sometimes when this stuff happens i can hear the drive not spinning after i turn it on, which leads me to believe that when the drive is spinning and everything, it is fine, but the hardware connecting the drive to my computer is faulty.

Now I've got some questions. Should I start making backups of all my files now? or did Maxtor just put a regular HD in their casing, and I can buy a new casing that will let my drive work fine? maybe it's just a bad idea to tamper with the HD? I'm confused! I've got over 45gb of music on this HD, only 20gb of it is on my iPod, and I've only got 2.5gb of free space on my HD on this computer! maybe i should just upload everything onto gmail......

[Danny Bui]

I'd say start making backups right now.

Have you tried connecting the drive to other USB ports on your PC as well other PCs? If the problem is still there even after moving the the drive around, then it may be faulty.

And more than likely it's just a regular drive. Just buy any enclosure that fits your drive and you should be fine. But back up your data first before doing a enclosure swap.

Or if your drive still has a warranty, just RMA the drive right back to Maxtor and they should send you a new drive. Again though, backup your data.

[DonDon]

It sounds to me like the power supply for your drive is getting ready to take a dump.

You have a couple of choices. I am going to assume this is an external drive with a separate power supply brick or wall wart.

1)Contact Maxtor and see if you can get a new one.

2)Read the specs and check the connector and see if you can find a replacement at Radio Shack. Oh, never mind. That aint gonna happen as the power supplies for external drives usually must provide 5 and 12 volts to make the drives work. My 2 external drives both have weird connectors with 4 pins.

3)Get an empty external enclosure, move the drive over, and see if you can access the data. That should work for an external USB drive. It does not always work for NAS boxes though as some use proprietary file formats.

4)Remove the drive from the enclosure and plug it straight into your MOBO. Similar to # 3. It should work, but you never know.

Just remember, if you send it into Maxtor for repair, they will prolly just exchange it and you will lose your data.

You should always keep AT LEAST 2 copies of important data. Now you see why. :(

Good luck, and don't hesitate to ask if you have any more questions.

Don

Oh yea, one more thing to check. Wiggle the power cord around and see if the light on the drive flickers in time to you moving it. It could just be a broken wire in the power cord if that is the case.