External HDD not working again!

Lanthus20 · 03 Mar 2010

So some of you may remember one of my previous posts. it was about an external hard drive I had connected to my computer that suddenly stopped working. It went on for a while and nobody could help me with my problem when suddenly it started working and my dvd drive stopped. Now my dvd is working but my HDD isn't.

It doesn't come up in device manager although sometimes I get the chime that indicates something has been connected. It doesn't show up in my computer and I cannot get certain files off of it. These files are mostly family photo's so understand they are very important to me. I was wondering if anybody else has experienced this problem and is there any way to fix it?

I have checked the cord. Just before anybody asks.

EDIT: Having recently got a new computer (after the previous problems) I decided to try it with one this time. It worked first try so I am sure it is my computer. The DVD drive problems made me suspect this at first but this has now verified it. I am glad I got my files but I still need this problem resolved.

EDIT: Pics of the inside.

External HDD not working again!-hpim0937.jpg

External HDD not working again!-hpim0938.jpg

External HDD not working again!-hpim0939.jpg

External HDD not working again!-hpim0940.jpg

External HDD not working again!-hpim0941.jpg

Tell me if you see anything wrong there. I'm gonna get a can of compressed air and clean it. Could that be the problem?

nate42nd · 04 Mar 2010

Hook it up and go into "disk management" and see if it's "online" that may be it.....

Lanthus20 · 04 Mar 2010

nate42nd, as it doesn't show up in anything. I'm pretty sure It's a fault with my computer because it worked first try in another computer.

Jo6Pak · 04 Mar 2010

side note: you might also want take it outside and blow the dust/dirt out of it. seriously...

sergiogarcia9 · 04 Mar 2010

Wow thats seriously a dusty case

nate42nd · 04 Mar 2010

Lanthus20 said:

nate42nd, as it doesn't show up in anything. I'm pretty sure It's a fault with my computer because it worked first try in another computer.

I wouldn't be surprised if the dust is blocking a SATA connection or something. Honestly.

But if that's not it, I will keep trying to help.

Lanthus20 · 05 Mar 2010

yah It hasn't been dusted since I got it. You should see my even older one...

anyways I'm going away for the weekend but when I come back I'll get some compressed air and blow it all out.

bassfisher6522 · 05 Mar 2010

The hard drive in question is an external one? How is connected to your PC? From the pictures the hard drive is internal. If that's the case, I see a SATA connection cable and an IDE/ATA connection cable, which looks like the IDE/ATA cable is coming from the hard drive. What is the SATA cable connecting to?

Thats a lot of dust in there, and dust is the number killer of PC components because of the heat build up due to all that dust. It's just like a partially clogged sink, with just a little blockage of the pipes the water tends to back up into the sink. This is the same with air flow inside the case of a PC. I suggest that you regularly blow out the PC case on a quarterly basis, 4 times a year. If your a heavy user you might want to consider doing it more. Also PC placement has a lot to do with it as well. Keep PC up off floor in an area that gets real good air circulation so it can breath, literally. Next comes cable management and good cable management promotes good air flow. Tie up and tuck all loose cables out of the way if at all possible. This can not all ways be done due to restrictions of the case itself. Do what you can, as a little is better than nothing.

When you do blow out the case (outside), you will probably go through alot of canned air, so start off with about 6 cans. First blow the case off with everything connected and get all the nooks and cranny's. Then one at a time and pull a cable (carefully) from mobo and hardware and blow out all the ports and connections even the ends of the cables themselves. Once this is all done, reconnect everything and turn on PC. This should rule out any over heating issue's which is what I susspect is happening.