External HD issues

[cparson]

All,

I have a somewhat older 500 GB My Book external HD that was working fine and then apparently went caputz... All of a sudden one day I got some error that said it wasn't configuring right, yada yada yada, so I reboot, uninstall, reinstall and it says it's working fine. However, it's not showing up under my computer as a recognized drive for me to open it, etc... so I figured I was screwed and started going the route to just recover my files using some downloadable software, and that won't even recognize the drive.

At current state, the HD is not initialized, and even when I went to try to initialize it, it says "incorrect operation" or something like that and won't let me move on. I would appreciate any help, comments, suggestions. I was a moron and thought that I could just back-up my files to my handy dandy EXT HD and things would be fine.

Thanks,
C

 

[cparson]

Also, it's currently connected through USB, but has a SATA port as well... not sure if I could/should try connecting it that way... again, any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

[Lemur]

Anytime hardware is working just fine, then suddenly stops, you have to first wonder if there has been a hw failure (e.g., power surge). Would you be able to test this drive on another pc first, to verify the drive is alive and well?

 

[cparson]

Lemur, thanks. I did take it to my friends PC, also running Win 7, and pretty much the exact same circumstances occured.

 

[whs]

Try to initialize it with Partition Wizard - maybe you have more luck: BEST FREE Partition Manager Software for Windows supports all 32-bit & 64 bit Windows No-server OS. look under the "Disk" tab.

 

[cparson]

Thanks WHS, I'll give this a try when I get home and post my results.