Retrieving information from my external hard drive

If the HDD is not damaged remove the HDD. You will need somthing like this: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276554

An external storage-device has four major components:

* the USB cable

* the power-adapter

* the disk-drive inside the enclosure

* the USB-to-disk-drive adapter inside the enclosure.

One of these components has failed.

Try a different USB cable.

Try connecting to a different USB port on your computer.

Try connecting to a USB port on a different computer.

Take a "multi-meter" and measure both the voltage and amperage output from the AC adapter, and compare with the specifications on the label on the adapter.

Open the enclosure, and remove the disk-drive, and then connect it as a "slave" disk-drive in a desktop computer, to see if it works at all.

Purchase a new, compatible, disk-drive, and install it in the enclosure, to "revive" your external storage device.

Get the part-number and serial-number from the label on your disk-drive, and access the manufacturer's web-site, and use "check warranty status", to see if they will replace the device, at minimal cost to you.

There exist commercial "data recovery" services that can try to repair your device, just long-enough to rescue and copy your files. For example, see: https://services.seagate.com/index.aspx?lng=en-US for a "no data - no charge" guarantee.

I can only assume that from the grinding sound that your Hard drive is about to completely die. One option would be to open the case and install it into your computer as an internal drive, however that may or may not work as different types of interfaces are not supported on all motherboards. If you are not familiar with PC repair, I would advise you to avoid this route and seek help from a person who does. Some companies can recover data from dead drives, drawback is that they can charge upwards of $1000 per GB of data recovered. Either way that drive needs to be replaced.

Hello,

The sequence you plug in the hard drive shouldn't matter. I would click Start -> Run and type:

eventvwr

Click okay. When the Event Viewer loads, click Application. Do you see any errors associated with the times you plug in the drive? Also, check the System events and look for the same thing.

If I were you, I would replace the cable connecting the computer to the external drive. If that doesn't work, I would get another external enclosure and transfer your drive to it.

Hi

Restart the system and then try it will work..

thank you

the enclosure is locked but clickers, the only way to oepn it is by force since PBell has a specific pressure point on the enclosure to open it.

the ratling sound means that the disk in your HDD is not alligned, it could just be a matter of time before it completely looses railing and be unusable.

best move you can do is contact PCBell and have them informed about your issue.

good luck

Check out the following link:

http://support.packardbell.com/uk/item/index.php?i=topic_02437&pi=platform_storeandsave3500&dhepn=C050890000

It includes the following:
Beeping noise and flashing LED
Situation When I turn on the Store & Save, it makes a beeping noise and the LED flashes continuously. Details These symptoms indicate that the AC adapter is not providing enough power. Solution The AC adapter will need to be replaced. I hope this helps, Bob

I'm guessing that there was a short circut. The drive got too much power, and it wasn't expecting it so it short circuted. In any matter, you must get a new drive, for the one you have now doesn't work, and there is a small percentage chance that it will ever work again. However, if you go to a computer store, they may be able to recover your information on your drive and put it on the new one. Good luck.

Sounds like the drive is dying. Is it externally powered, or powered through the USB port? How old is the drive? When you say 'strange' what does it sound like?

mine doesn't register on the c drive when i turn it on. Occasionaly I get access, but then the computer crashes. My main drive is Nftls the external drive is configured to Fat 32, could this be the problem? Altho, I'm not so sure as it's been working ok for the past year. I managed to scandisk and fix errors and managed to defrag, everything was working pukka after that, but then today.. well that red light is annoying, especially when you dont know what it means! Think I need to go to packard bell and see if they have a solution. Anyone found one yet?