I have a Segagate USB external storage drive. It went out of warranty about 4 mos ago . When I first noticed a problem, the unit was making harsh "clicking" sounds ( about 2/sec).... now when I power it up it sounds like my old alarm clock "beep ...beep.... beep...etc) One of the troubleshooting guides at Seagate said that it may not be receiving enough power. It came with an Adapter :120V (American) the output says it is 12Vac with 2.0Amps. In one thread on the forum the person claimed that they just bought a new adapter min 2.1 amps. ST3120203U2-RK is the model ## do you think that getting a new power supply would help or have you run into this before?? Thanks! Robert aka [email protected]

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, and maybe to upgrade from 100GB to 500GB.

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".

The external storage device has several major components:
* USB cable
* external power-supply
* disk-drive inside the enclosure
* USB-to-disk-drive adapter inside the enclosure.
Try a different USB cable.
Try a different USB port on your computer.
Try a USB port on a different computer.
Take a multi-meter, and measure the output voltage/amperage of the power-supply,
and compare with the specifications on the label of the power-supply.
Open the enclosure, and remove the disk-drive, and attach it as a "slave" drive in a desktop computer, to see if bypassing the USB-to-disk-drive adapter bypasses the problem.
Look at the label on the disk-drive, for manufacturer, product-number, serial-number, and manufacture date. Access the manufacturer's web-site, and use "check warranty status" to see if the warranty still is valid. If so, the drive can be replaced, at minimal cost to you.
Buy a new, compatible, disk-drive, and install it in the enclosure, to "revive" your external storage device.
Search online for a professional "data recovery service". For a significant fee, they can repair your disk-drive, just long-enough to copy your files to a new disk-drive.

> ticking of a watch ...

A typical sound from a disk-drive that has malfunctioned.

If it still has a valid WARRANTY, exercise the warranty to get it repaired/replaced.

If the warranty has expired, then open the case, remove the disk-drive, buy a new "compatible" disk-drive, connect it, and thus "revive" your external storage device.

Try connecting it to a different computer.

Any external storage device has three major parts:
* USB cable
* disk-drive
* USB-to-disk-drive adapter

Try a different USB cable.

Disconnect the disk-drive from that adapter, and connect the disk-drive as a "slave" disk-drive in a desktop computer, and see if you can read the files, which implies that the adapter is the part that has failed.

If you cannot read from the disk-drive, check its WARRANTY status. W.D. will replace it, if the warranty is still valid.

Otherwise, W.D. has a "Customer Loyalty" program: find the serial-number of your unit, access their web-site, and purchase another W.D. external storage unit, at a significant discount, by citing the serial-number.

Or, if the adapter is OK, then replace the disk-drive by a new one, and close-up the casing, to create a "revived" external storage device for your use.

The disk-drive has malfunctioned.

Search online for a professional "data recovery service".
For a significant fee, they can repair your disk-drive,
just long-enough to copy your files to a new disk-drive.

If it still has a valid WARRANTY, exercise the warranty to get it repaired/replaced.

If the warranty has expired, then open the case, remove the disk-drive, buy a new "compatible" disk-drive, connect it, and thus "revive" your external storage device.

Iomega 1TB Desktop Hard Drive is a dedicated usb 2.0 plug and play external storage device that has an ability to transfer at 480Mbits/second. having these large capacity storage drive needs a fast connection and additional power source to make sure to run the external unit system properly.

just make sure both power and data cables are properly plugged and connected respectively. if you are using it with a desktop, please always plug your usb connection from the Iomega 1TB external drive to the rear USB port in line where you built-in LAN is.do not plug it in the frontload ports. some motherboard manufacturers uses usb 1 and/or 1.1 only for frontload desktop casing provision.

thank you.

Probably has a 5 year warranty. Go to Seagate's site, enter the model and serial numbers, and see what you find.

I have the same issue. I have 4 Simpletech Signature 250GB drives. They all worked fine at first. After about six months two of them started connecting at USB 1 speeds. It occurs on 4 different computers!!! The post about it being the computer assumes is wrong. How can it work fine for six months and then suddenly change. Also it occurs on different computers. I have submitted a tech support request with simpletech and will post the results.

Hmm any sort of nise from the disk is not a good sign. try using the unit on another Pc. if you have the same issue you might have to take it for warranty.(if you have warranty)

Is the drive partitioned and formatted already?
Does it work on another computer?
Is the drive powered via the usb cable, or does it have an adapter?
Do you have any networked drives on this computer?

When it is connected on your computer,
click Start
right click Computer
click Manage
double click Storage
double click Disk Management

Is it in the list of drives in the lower half of the window?