External Hard Drive Not Detected

I believe the casing is playing a part in this issue. To try to draw an analogy (maybe a bad one) it's kinda, sorta like the electrical system of a car. You know you've got battery power because the headlights come on. But the thing won't start. No matter what you do with the battery, no matter how many wires you change out, it just won't start. Why? Because the starter shorted out.

Applying that logic to the casing, the USB cable is providing power from the computer to the LED because the LED lights up. But at some point beyond the LED, something in the circuitry is messed up and not allowing the drive to be recognized or accessed. A new enclosure might solve the problem providing the hard drive itself wasn't compromised in some way.

Makes sense to me. Ok, so the last resort left now is to try another Casing. Will do that as soon as possible. But if it turns out that the disk doesn't start functioning with another casing also, then is there any way for reviving the disk or would it then be logical to throwaway the drive in the garbage-bin?

But first things first, I'll now revert back after checking it with another casing.

Thanks a ton for your time & patience :)

Cheers!

Hopefully a new case will solve the problem. If it doesn't (and unfortunately that possibility does exist) then whether you keep the drive or toss it would probably depend on what data, if any, it contains. Professional data recovery services could charge hundreds of dollars and go up from there.

If loss of data isn't a problem for you I'd physically destroy the drive and plan on getting a new external USB drive. Prices have come way down and it's pretty much the norm to be able to get a new (not refurbished) name brand 2TB drive for about $100 (or less on sale.)

Newegg.com - external usb hard drive 2 tb

Looking forward to hear how it goes with a new enclosure.

Checked the casing....it's good. It's the Seagate drive which has gone bad The disc is not even rotating. I won't mind tossing it coz it has nothing other than 70GB of my music library backup. Yeah, next time I buy an external drive it will be a 2TB one only...thanks for the suggestion and all the help. I guess we can close the *case* now (pun intended)

Cheers!

Sorry to hear the drive isn't salvageable, but on the bright side you were able to figure out what the problem was. At least it gave "closure" to this "case" (like you, pun intended. )

ebert said:

I had this same issue and it was driving me crazy!! I checked everything I could think of!! Until I thought I would check it out in the computer management..
Go to:
Control Panel
Admin tools
Computer management
Disk management
And sure enough there were my drives that I couldn't access. I had to right click on the drive header and select 'Online'
And now sure enough I see all my drives in the 'Computer'

G'day All, good to see I'm not the only one with this problem, This one is a WD 1 TB (WD10EADS). IT WAS WORKING FINE FOR A NUMBER OF MONTHS WHEN THE SON ASKED IF HE COULD (opps, sorry bout the caps lock) use it. after a time he brought it out and asked me to look at it as it would not load on his computer. I have tried external hock up, and opened the plastic case and hocked it up internal via SATA connections. Both times it will spin up but the system will not see it to read. rebooted a couple of times and still nothing. Any help would be appreciated as I'm behind the 8 ball here.
Cheers and thanks in advance.

Michael.

G'day all again,

Just an up date as I've just read the posts between Marsmimar and Cosmicsuperstar.

1. running win 7 32 bit.
2. light on drive case flashes at regular intervals when plugged into a USB port.
3. have just finished running CHKDSK on 2 different hard drives from my sons computer and both ran fine on internal cables. have used same cables to connect the faulty unit.
4. have tried faulty unit on a number of different computers with the same result.

Heres hoping this can be fixed.

Michael.

I'm having the same problems that you are having with one exception. My external HDs worked just fine until I upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate from Windows 7 Pro. I also bought a new 500 GB HD for backups, but it will not work. I want what I paid for, and Microsoft is guilty as hell for false advertising.

Sorry for the rant! What steps did you take with explorer.exe--and did they work? Thanks

Hi guys. I have Win 7ultimate x64. I have new portable HD that is getting reconized, but i can't put anything in there or use it. This is the HD Speed Dragon All that comes up is a number for it. I can see it in the hidden icons, but it's not showing up in the "computer" section. I.e. i can see C: drive and other hd's i have used previously. It's USB 3.0, if that makes any difference. Any help would be much appreciated.

My headaches are gone, your tip has ferfect also works with me, had previously tried a system restore, even with my backup software.

Thank so much

ebert said:

I had this same issue and it was driving me crazy!! I checked everything I could think of!! Until I thought I would check it out in the computer management..
Go to:
Control Panel
Admin tools
Computer management
Disk management
And sure enough there were my drives that I couldn't access. I had to right click on the drive header and select 'Online'
And now sure enough I see all my drives in the 'Computer'