20 Most Recent Maxtor Personal Storage 3200 (U01E200) 200 GB Hard Drive - Page 3 Questions & Answers

If it is a brand new hard drive that you got what you will likely need to do is format the hard drive first. When you plug it in what you need to do is go to start - and then right click on "computer" and select "manage". This will open a new screen that has options. Click on "Disk management" on the right of that screen. You should see your new hard drive on this list. NOTE: Make sure you select your maxtor hard drive, not your computer hard drive. Right click on the drive and hit "format" and then follow the prompts or accept the defaults. Once this finishes you should be able to access your hard drive. If you have any other questions feel free to post a comment to this answer. Good luck!

first format your drive, using disk management tool
my computer right click-->manage-->disk management (show your drive hear)

Check your BIOS settings (or have someone check for you, if your'e not computer savvy) and make sure that you have the drive section for all channels set to 'Auto'.
Also, have you checked the jumper settings on the drive to make sure there aren't any conflicts with other drives on the same cable? Primary(boot/Operating system) should be Master, Secondary(data) set to Slave.
Hope that helps.
Cheers from NZ

if the ard drive do,s not power up you can get into it /contact maxtor ask them if they can mend it but would not build my hopes up

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/

i had the same problem but i found the solution!
It's right that you opened up disk utility. I found the solution here: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=SATA_Troubleshooter_-_Mac_OS_X_Installation_Basics&vgnextoid=a0a44a3cdde5c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD#storage

but short version of it all:
Basically you just need to format the drive by selecting it on the left in disk utility. Then select the erase tab. Then change MS-DOS (FAT) to Mac OS Extended. Finish by clicking erase. Mine works fine now. Hope you can get yours working too!

Hi,
Welcome to Fixya. Would like to know if you open My Computer or Computer did you see the drive on the list? Can you also you also see the available space and the capacity of the drive? Please provide the information needed to be able to fix the issue.
Thanks

You can get Windows 7 to do the backup for you. See http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows7/Back-up-your-files

you could disassemble the case and remove the drive. it could then be connect via an external controller such as(http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2477926&CatId=3770) and test if the drive itself is good in which case it is the controller in the case.
cheapest way I can think of to diagnose these external enclosures

GL
Don't forget to vote if I have help you,
TY
Jammer

There are 2 parts: The power supply and a power cord. If you lost the power supply you have to contact the seagate support. They will send you one and charge a fee if it is out of warranty.

If you lost the 2 pin power cord- this one is standard and in any good electrical supply store you can buy one for not much money. Take the power supply when buying and make sure you buy the correct one.

remove the two visible phillips screws on the connector end of the case, (there are no hidden screws under the labels and the little squareish slot is nothing i can figure other than another vent -- then, press down on one side of the top vents and pull apart along the case halves, it disengages three crappy little small plastic latches, there are the same latches on both case sides -- start on either side, it was not easy. i was only able to open one side enough to forcibly pry open the case with my hands (nothing broke in so doing), so i'd say the design is hardly elegant, certainly not "ingenious."...

why open the case? because the green light flickers or does not glow, meaning the drive is not powered so it will not be recognized. Mine fried from connecting a similar looking AC adapter (a common IBM 12V 4A output AC power supply.) They have the same plug as the proper Maxtor 12V 2A AC supply. I'm pretty sure the higher amperage fried the enclosure circuit which resulted in a flashing or no green light - (when it works the light is steady.) Someone on this site said the 90% of the time when this happens it is just the enclosure power supply that failed, and that the fix is to remove the raw drive from the case and put into another enclosure (or connect to an internal IDE/ATA power and connector ribbon)

...but the bad news is when i put the raw drive in a good enclosure, it still only flickered, so i think 500 Gb drive is toast...well, at least i figured how to open the damn case...

Make sure that connect the hard drive directly to a usb port on your laptop and not thru a usb hub,disconnect all other usb devices except the hard drive and try rebooting and see if it shows up.
Thanks for using FixYa

Google is your friend: "incremental backup"

Try using a different USB cable in connecting to the computer. Sometimes, the USB cable wires gets defective due to wear and tear. If that doesn't work, look for another AC power supply, as it is sometimes the cause of the harddrive not spinning the motors. Try a different power cord, or a different power supply, and hope it works.

When you plug the drive, once mounted on the mac, go to applications>utilities>disk utilities then select the drive and choose partition. If you want the drive to be bootable you should then choose Mac OS Extended (journaled).
Cheers

If it is the external hard drive enclosure that is broken then yes. But if it is the hard drive itself that is broken then no.
From what happened I'm thinking that it is the external hard drive enclosure that is broken. That being said, you can easily buy one without the hard drive online. When doing this be sure you know what kind of hard drive is in your Maxtor enclosure. This is important because you need to be sure that your hard drive and enclosure are compatible. Check to see if it uses SATA, ATA, or PATA connectors and then buy the corresponding external hard drive enclosure.
Once you have bought your new empty external hard drive enclosure, it is simply a matter of opening up your Maxtor enclosure and moving the hard drive inside to your newly purchased enclosure and connecting it to your computer.
To avoid problems like this in the future, look into "cloud based storage" to back up all of your data securely online.

What I would do is unplug it Immediatly and stop using it so you won't screw it up any more. On a side note Apple is reported to be giving you unlimited dowloads of your music so that may save you. If it's not being recognized try going onto a different computer.

There are a number of possible solutions to this problem and these are itemized elsewhere in this forum. I had the same problem and nothing worked so with nothing to lose I prised open the case and removed the USB adapter and unplugged the power light. This leaves a normal HDD with standard connections. I installed this in a PC and it now works. The problem must have been in either the adapter or the power supply. Not the perfect answer but possibly a way out to retrieve data.