20 Most Recent Buffalo Technology 320GB MINISTATION TURBO USB 2.0 5400 RPM PORTABLE HDD Hard Drive - Page 2 Questions & Answers

Connect it to another computer to see if it works.If it does not work reseat the hard drive connectors in the hard drive case to make sure the connections are secure.If you cannot hear the hard drive spin when you connect the power then the hard drive maybe faulty.

Hi Welcome to FixYa!
I am having the same scenario too sometimes.. What i usually do if the drive is not in use, I turn off the computer first then unplug my external hdd. in that case, the computer is completely off as well as the drive. But if you feel like its a hassle of turning down the machine for you to remove the drive, you could try the following steps:
There is a setting for the USB drives which tells the OS how to optimize their usage. Either it is optimized for Quick Removal or for Performance. To check it, do the following:
-Right click on the USB drive icon in My Computer. -Select the Hardware tab. -Select your USB drive and click on Properties. -Now click on Policies tab.



Optimize for Quick removal This setting disables write caching on the disk so that you can disconnect this drive without using theSafely Remove Hardware icon.
Optimize for Performance This setting enables the write caching on the disk so as to improve disk performance. To disconnect this drive, you should use the Safely Remove Hardware icon so as not to hurt your USB drive.
Hope this would help!

first be sure to have a working and updated antivirus program on your computer
second use the chkdsk command (in a command prompt) and run it on yor usb external drive
(let's say your usb external drive is F:, so the command will be chkdsk f:)
after that everything will work again

Good luck!

It is possible to recover data after formatting. This guy does it remotely and works off of donations http://FreeDataRecovery.us

The format of your drive is probably not correct. If data is not stored on your hard-drive, format it to NTFS if on Windows, or Mac OS Extended (Journaled) if on a Mac. If there is data, back it up to a computer that can read it and then format the drive.

I/O Error Device means that the pc cannot communicate with your external HDD - either the USB cable is broken (replace it) or its control board has failed. If it's the latter then the Buffalo is dead, get a new one.

Portable hard drives are extremely useful. Make sure you have both HD cords connected correctly One coming from your HD to your PC and the other as a power cord. From there, you should simply click "Start" go to "My Computer" and your external drive should show up right there.

i think there might be a conflict
if you are having trouble with your drivers here is a general look at the drivers and how to update them if your computer came with a motherboard disc the drivers could be on it click start control panel administrive tools ,computer management ,device manager look through all of your devices if you see a yellow question mark?or exclamation mark ! or red x right click to reinstall drivers or if you can see your usb but its not working ports(com&lpt)right click update driver make sure the lead/s that attach to this drive have a secure seating and are not bad/faulty the light on only tells that its getting power it might not be getting enough power you might test the lead/s or just replace the cable of the hard disk, when you plugged the external disk drive you got that windows could recognize the USB device change the cable everything should work fine again, sometimes the wires inside the cable will be damaged due to bending or stretching or placing heavy equipment upon the cable, check the USB leads that attach to the motherboard usually red-white-green-black make sure they are securely seated and have no dust build up on them dust will cause static and a lot of unforeseen problems hope this helps

That probably means that the drive is dead. Because they have lots of moving parts, hard drives die fairly regularly. There isn't anything you can do about this, except buy another drive. If there was any data on it, there are programs that might be able to recover some of it, but since you formatted, that's not a problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000

Access Windows Disk Manager to see all the drives that are currently connected to your computer. From there, right-click your external hard drive and you should be able to reformat it.

If it has driver, install it first. If it connect it with one USB connector and failed, connect with two USB driver.

It's clear from missing files that your hdd is infected from virus. Virus has a property to hide your files so that no one could see them but they these files are not permanently deleted. Thats why hdd properties shows they are full.
Method 1: Click "My Laptop" Switch to the advanced view (if you're using Windows XB.) Click "Folder Administrator" Click the tab called "Viewer" Check "Show all files or folders or applications" If you also wish to view system files, Uncheck "Show protected operating system files"
Method 2: Go to registry editor by running regedit in the run box. Go to this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoft WindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced In the right hand area, double click hidden and change the value to 1. Now you're all set to go. Check it in your tools menu if the changes have taken effect.
Method 3: If none of the above methods work, please download Smart Virus Remover or any other good software from internet. GOOD LUCK

format it

Keep it at Fat 32 as most USB drives come that way. and any Windows operating system will recognize the drive. The reason that it transfers files slowly is because the USB drives are slow compared to internal drives. Also your USB ports may be of the older variety USB 1, rather than USB 2, but this is a function of *********** board chipset. For instance, many USB drives are coming out with the ad on the box saying compatible with USB 3, but if your machine only has USB 1 or 2, then it can not be run at the higher speed. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus

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".

Try it with another PC if available.
or, Install Linux (Ubuntu etc.) and see if it works.

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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.