My External Hard drive is not recognized and makes sound

Have you try to use other cable or test it to other computer?. If the problem still the same then their is a chance that your external drive are already deffective. Try to visit a store catering hard disk recovery for any possible chances of recovery. Just a thought hope it helps thanks.

Sounds like it's gone bad. I recommend these guys, if it's recoverable at all. I used them on my last job and they came through with all the data: http://www.gillware.com/

Hello and welcome to the TSF. If the external drive has provisions for external power you'll need to plug that in, usb ports cannot power a 320 drive. If the drive has 2 usb plugs (one for additional power) you'll need them both plugged in, and I would suggest that the laptop should also be running off of external power rather than battery. If you disconnect the usb drive or any other usb device without first stopping the device then sometimes the usb ports will fail to recognize the device when it is plugged back in, a simple reboot should do the trick. You can also check in the device manager for any yellow exclamation marks on your usb host conrtoller and see if the driver for it is in need of an update.
Any drivers you need should be on simpletech's website, though normally you should not need any for a usb hdd. If the power cord/a/c adaptor is faulty or the hdd is loose in the enclosure(thus not making good contact) then you should pester simpletech to either replace the cord, a/c adaptor,or unit, and see if there are instructions on how to take apart the enclosure and reseat the drive/connections.
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Your drive has failed. to try to get back some of your items put the drive in the freezer for a day. the chill will make the heads condense enough for about 3 hours of use for emergency backup.

It sounds like the hard drive head crashed when you pulled the power plug. Unfortunately if you can't get drive to be recognized, you won't even be able to run any diagnostics. You will have to take the drive to an authorized repair shop who will have to check the electronics to see if the head will respond. Unless you have data on your drive that you absolutely need, you will probably save a lot of money by replacing rather than repairing the drive.

try it on different usb ports on your system
try replacing the cable which connects the hard drive with the usb port
if this does not works the problem lies in the portable hard drive and i think it would be under warranty period so get it checked

You can try opening the device manager in Window XP and uninstall the external hard disk (make sure you show unplugged devices).
Then replug the drive again, and it should reinstall the drivers.

Jules

hi..the reason for your problem is your extenal
hard drive has been affected by viruses.The best
solution to this problem is scanning your hard drive.
once you scan it u will be free of viruses and your
laptop will be able to recognise your hard drive.
try it out..
thank u..
rate me..

you can find a program on the maxtor/seagate site maybe you can fix this with that..

Gr Rich

I suggest to connect the harddrive straight to the computer as a slave disk, coz i think the casing power has been damaged. make sure u set its jumper as slave, the harddrive in the machine which contaoins windows should be the master.