This is a question regarding my external hard drive which i have been using for a few months. The other day, i turn on the HD and the computer will not pick it up. I go to the My Computer menu but the HDD doesn't appear an accessable drive. Is there any way to correct this? If not is there any way to retrieve the data on the hard drive? I've tried this on two PCs and both do not read it so I believe this is a problem with the HDD. Any help is appreciate.
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External Hard drive help
- Thread starter SpYdeR187
- Start date
gigabyte1024
[H]ard|Gawd
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- Mar 10, 2001
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- 2,027
external... USB?
datarecoverypro
n00b
- Joined
- May 14, 2007
- Messages
- 6
It could be a controller issue with the enclosure. Try taking the drive out of the enclosure and hooking it up to your computer as a secondary drive. If there are two drives in the enclosure, leave it alone if the data has any value.
gigabyte1024
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2001
- Messages
- 2,027
Is there external power? Do you have it plugged into power before you plug in the USB cable?
It could be a controller issue with the enclosure. Try taking the drive out of the enclosure and hooking it up to your computer as a secondary drive. If there are two drives in the enclosure, leave it alone if the data has any value.
I'm not sure why you're advising me to do besides putting the drive in the enclosure. What does it mean if there are two drives in the enclosure?
datarecoverypro
n00b
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- May 14, 2007
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I'm not sure why you're advising me to do besides putting the drive in the enclosure. What does it mean if there are two drives in the enclosure?
I had gathered that the drive was currently in the enclosure, and I was suggesting that you remove it from the enclosure and connect it as an additional hard drive to your system through an IDE or SATA connection depending on the drive. If the issue involves a problem with the controller, then you should be able to access the data this way. Also, if there are two drives in the enclosure (this is common in bigger drives like 500GB or larger), then that would mean the data was striped, and you definitely don't want to mess with that if the data has any value.
datarecoverypro
n00b
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- May 14, 2007
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Ok I will definitely try that out. If it does work then it is a problem with the enclosure? And if it doesn't then the data is lost?
PS. There is only 1 drive 250gb in the enlosure
No, the data is probably not lost. In any data recovery case, it really just comes down to how important the data is, and how much it is worth to you. If the drive is still not seen by the BIOS or OS of the computer you connect it to (outside of the enclosure) then it is probably a mechanical or electrical issue. In that case, you pretty much have no choice but to go with a data recovery professional. If it's a logical problem, in other words the drive is seen by the computer, but shows up as being unformatted, then you can probably benefit from utilizing a software solution like GetDataBack or Stellar Phoenix.