External HDD doesn't appear anyomre on my PC

Hi everyone,

I've an external hard drive (Seagate 2 TB) that worked OK for a long time but suddenly after a power fluctuation it stopped working on my PC.

The drive is ON but doesn't start (no mechanical sound) so my PC doesn't detect it, but it still works OK on other computers and after connecting to other PCs my PC detects it properly again!

It works OK until my PC is shut down.Then my PC doesn't detect it again until I connect the drive to another PC and reconnect it on my PC.

Please help me with this problem.Thanks.

Hi stevedamfers,

Welcome onboard.

You have a custom-built desktop. Right?

Just power-cycle your PC. Let us see whether it works to resolve this strange problem.

Switch off your PC. If your computer power supply has a switch, switch it off and then switch off the mains supply to the PC.(Better to plug it out from the wall socket.) Leave it disconnected for a few minutes, say 5 minutes - the longer the better :). For a good measure press and hold the power button on your PC a few times. All this should take away even 1 coloumb of residual charge left anywhere inside your PC.

Now reverse the process. Plug in the mains wall socket. Turn on the power supply switch in your computer. Press the power button of your computer and boot it. Plug-in your external drive.

Tell us whether it resolved your problem. If not..... I am hitting the sack now. Let others break their head.:) Escape.

jumanji said:

Hi stevedamfers,

Welcome onboard.

You have a custom-built desktop. Right?

Just power-cycle your PC. Let us see whether it works to resolve this strange problem.

Switch off your PC. If your computer power supply has a switch, switch it off and then switch off the mains supply to the PC.(Better to plug it out from the wall socket.) Leave it disconnected for a few minutes, say 5 minutes - the longer the better :). For a good measure press and hold the power button on your PC a few times. All this should take away even 1 coloumb of residual charge left anywhere inside your PC.

Now reverse the process. Plug in the mains wall socket. Turn on the power supply switch in your computer. Press the power button of your computer and boot it. Plug-in your external drive.

Tell us whether it resolved your problem. If not..... I am hitting the sack now. Let others break their head.:) Escape.

thanks a lot jumanji, I tried it twice, once 5 min, no success, once 2 hour off the wall socket, again no answer...

matts6887 said:

if taking juice away from the system does not solve the issue; and it works on other computers just fine; its most likely a issue with windows. Can you check the event viewer to see if there are any error messages for that device? Also since you said it was after a power fluctuation; it is possible it may have taken a small hit either from the power supply or elsewhere.

thanks for your advice, but I couldn't find anything especial in Event Viewer. Still the issue goes on...

The next thing I would try is to restore the system to a point before the power fluctuation occurred.