external hard disk drive

• seow

  23 Sep 07, 16:13

  My sis has one that won't read although the led indicating there is a connection is on, any clue on what happened and how to fix?
  
  Got some important documents so the data has to be recovered at any cost....
  
  Many thanks!
• ndmmxiaomayi

  23 Sep 07, 16:15

  Tried on other PC?
• seow

  23 Sep 07, 16:16

  Yup, laptop, desktop, nothing....
• blahshit

  23 Sep 07, 16:22

  the cable something wrng? aiya.. if got warranty then go down to e service center and ask lo.. lol..
• ndmmxiaomayi

  23 Sep 07, 16:28

  Do you have a spare external disk? If yes, try using the cables of the spare external hard disk.
• seow

  23 Sep 07, 17:01

  Unfortunately, no....
  
  Any chance we might be able to one spare ones outside? xD
• In_Between_Days

  23 Sep 07, 17:19

  Originally posted by seow:

  My sis has one that won't read although the led indicating there is a connection is on, any clue on what happened and how to fix?
  
  Got some important documents so the data has to be recovered at any cost....
  
  Many thanks!

  If it's a new drive u need to format it b4 using...try this:
  
  Once the external HDD is plugged in via USB...make sure it is detected under "Safely Remove Hardware"...it will show up as a "USB Mass Storage Device"...you won't see yur HDD in "My Computer" yet...
  
  Go to "Control Panel"------>"Performance & Maintenance"------>"Administrative Tools"------->"Computer Management".....click on "Disk Management"...
  
  You will see all yur various drives and partitions...including yur new external HDD which will appear as a whole Unpartitioned drive...click on it...right click and select partition & format...you'll need to choose a letter for yur new drive...
  
  Once the format process is done...yur external HDD will appear in "My Computer" with yur other drives as a new HDD...ready to use...
  
  I hope the above works for u...good luck!
• LatecomerX

  23 Sep 07, 17:33

  Originally posted by In_Between_Days:

  If it's a new drive u need to format it b4 using...try this:
  
  Once the external HDD is plugged in via USB...make sure it is detected under "Safely Remove Hardware"...it will show up as a "USB Mass Storage Device"...you won't see yur HDD in "My Computer" yet...
  
  Go to "Control Panel"------>"Performance & Maintenance"------>"Administrative Tools"------->"Computer Management".....click on "Disk Management"...
  
  You will see all yur various drives and partitions...including yur new external HDD which will appear as a whole Unpartitioned drive...click on it...right click and select partition & format...you'll need to choose a letter for yur new drive...
  
  Once the format process is done...yur external HDD will appear in "My Computer" with yur other drives as a new HDD...ready to use...
  
  I hope the above works for u...good luck!

  Got some important documents so the data has to be recovered at any cost....

  To TS:
  Don't (follow that and format your HDD)*, fgs.
  
  Confirm that it's not the USB or IDE cables that's giving you this headache. If the cables and everything else works fine, it could be that the hard disk is physically damaged. For that, you will need to approach a PC repair shop which have some specialised machine that can read the remaining data out of the disk platters - but be ready to pay hundreds.
  
  http://free-backup.info/physical-data-recovery.html
  http://www.01datarecovery.com/recovery-physical.html
  
  *added parentheses to avoid confusion - the "don't" applies to both actions
  
• ADsolutE

  23 Sep 07, 18:18

  if you wish, you can just take the hard disk out from the portable casing and put into the computer to try whether the hard disk works
• Hanagata

  23 Sep 07, 18:22

  first of all, i would like to ask you a question. what brand of that HDD you using? secondly is it encrypted?, thirdly does it have any software with it?
• KrenByte

  23 Sep 07, 18:37

  Most common problem is the connection between hard disk and connector is loose. Check this first, try opening up yr ext hard disk and reconnect the cables inside firmly. If it doesn't work, grab someone else's hard disk and try.
  
  Don't anyhow reformat, the problem may not lie with the hard disk itself... Yet.