How to revive a dead portable drive?


  1. Posts : 85
    Windows 7
       #1

    How to revive a dead portable drive?


    I have a year old Seagate (USB 3) 1 tb-portable drive. It ran without problem for a year.
    Suddenly, I found it dead on labor day today. When connected to my computer by USB cable, I see the light on the drive. When touched it, I feel it a sort of spinning. But my computer does not recognize the portable drive. Under disk management, it does not see the portable drive either. It seems that the portable drive is now dead. Is there anyway to revive it?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 132
    Win 7 x64
       #2

    It depends on several factors. The enclosure could have gone bad and the drive could be fine. I would try plugging the drive into at least one other pc to see if the computer detects the drive. If it doesn't see it either, you could buy a empty external enclosure and remove the drive from it's current one and install it in the new one. You could also remove it from the enclosure and try connecting it directly to your MB with a SATA cable.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 85
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #3

    xunile said:
    It depends on several factors. The enclosure could have gone bad and the drive could be fine. I would try plugging the drive into at least one other pc to see if the computer detects the drive. If it doesn't see it either, you could buy a empty external enclosure and remove the drive from it's current one and install it in the new one. You could also remove it from the enclosure and try connecting it directly to your MB with a SATA cable.
    Thanks for your reply. Since I post the question, I solved the problem at home. I have two Win7 Pro computers (office and home). The drive was not recognized by office computer under disk management. So I took it home and connected to home computer. It was not detected on home computer but seen it under Disk Management without "drive letter". The main problem was the drive letter for the portable drive. With Window Explorer, it is not visible. So by adding the drive letter, the problem solved. When I connected it to my office computer this morning, Voila! It now works.

    It is very strange to see that two Dell computers behave differently.

    Thanks your comment.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 1,007
    Winndows 7 32 bit
       #4

    hummer7 said:
    I have a year old Seagate (USB 3) 1 tb-portable drive. It ran without problem for a year.
    Suddenly, I found it dead on labor day today. When connected to my computer by USB cable, I see the light on the drive. When touched it, I feel it a sort of spinning. But my computer does not recognize the portable drive. Under disk management, it does not see the portable drive either. It seems that the portable drive is now dead. Is there anyway to revive it?
    Hi hummer7,

    I understand that you have resolved the issue by assigning the drive letter from a different PC. We truly appreciate you sharing your findings with us as it would be beneficial for other users as well.

    Please mark the thread as solved. If you have any further queries, please feel free to contact us.
      My Computer


 

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