A while ago I noticed my the external hard dive wasn't working. Specifically, 1. the usb drive didn't fit onto the external hard drive end properly. It was loose fitting, But the USB end that fits into the computer, fitted just fine. 2. The light DIDN'T come on! No blinking or anything! Since the info I needed was already saved onto my laptop, I didn't worry about it this issue too much bc I already had the documents I needed saved onto my laptop. But now, I desperately need something off of it! I bought another cord off of amazon. Here's the link of what I bought. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D5FQGDC/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ...and I noticed that the issue has NOT changed and remains the same! I'm pretty careful with it when I use it, so I don't recall dropping it or any water getting on it. However, I have used it in several different computers. Like the times when I would go to my school's library and needed to get some info or some doc off of it. I would plug it in, light would blink, and subsequently stop blinking when all my files would show. Now it doesn't do anything. I have tried plugging the New Amazon Cord I bought into other computers, but the issue still remains. No light and not recognizable by the computer/laptop I'm using In addition, I noticed it doesn't work on Mac computers either, just Windows. Not that this is an issue, it's just some additional info that I thought maybe will help the volunteer reading this to help figure out my issue. Thanks!
You didn't specified whether your drive is 2.5" "notebook sized" or 3.5" "desktop sized". Many 2.5" HDDs do not require additional power supply because USB 2.0 port can provide DC of maximum 5V @ 500mA (USB 3.0 - 1A). That's enough to power on and start spindle of most 2.5" drives (even though many of them rated as 700mA or more). However in some cases additional power supply should be provided from a power supply box or a secondary USB port. This also depends on particular PC port (USB controller schematics, wires, adapters etc.).
3.5" desktop drives always require 5V+12V power supply and a few ampers at each line, so external power supply is mandatory in this case (and provided with externals drive/enclosure).
Every external HDD has at least 2 logically separated components inside the case - HDD itself and USB to IDE/SATA bridge controller. IDE drives are legacy today and are manufactured just for very old PCs or some consumer prodicts. So if you have external HDD produced in last 6-7 years it most probably has SATA drive connected with standard SATA interface connectors to the USB to SATA bridge controller board inside. If you disassemble external enclosure, you can disconnect HDD from a bridge board and connect it to your PC or another enclosure (to read out or recover data or use in usual manner). Last years many HDD manufacturers flooded market with "self-branded" (Seagate, WD, Toshiba, Hitachi, Samsung, etc.) 2.5" external HDDs where USB bridge controller is implanted into the HDD's board. Such an HDDs have only a USB connector directed outside to the enclosure hole. Such a drives do not have standard SATA connectors so you can not connect them directly to generic SATA controller. Logically SATA interface is present on the board, but it's difficult to find points and solder tiny wires to the tiny points on the HDD board. That is performed just by data recovery pro's for data recovery purposes.
I's very simple to fire up USB bridge controller. ESD, incorrect voltage or bad wires can damage it easy. I have many such boards with fired up ICs. Light (diode) is located on the USB bridge board. In most cases diode will light up as soon as you will provide power supply to this board. Later it will blink as an activity indicator. If diode do not light up it most probably means that board is damaged. Damage can be located in the connector, power scheme or IC. You can try to hear if spindle motor is rotating or tryng to start (clicks), but usually as soon as power is provided to the board light will up (at least for a moment) even if there is not enough powering from USB port for HDD (HDD can't start, click sounds from spindle motor. Be noted that "other" click sounds can indicate that HDD itself is damaged but light will up in this case).
If you have valid warranty you can send this drive to manufacturer for repairments of replacing. If your warranty is over you have only option to disassemble enclosure (yourself or ask tech) and look if drive and bridge are separate parts. If they are you can simply connect HDD itself to any PC (other enclosure) to check if it works OK. In most cases when USB bridge is fired up HDD will remain untouched, then go to local PC store and buy a new enclosure (w/o drive) which cost $5 to $20, depending on brand and quality (many times cheaper then external HDD), and.use your HDD with it.
Some "branded" external HDDs are difficult to disassemble. Manufacturers want you to buy a new drive and prevent you to fix your old or use it e.g. as notebook's internal one. Look for other user's reports and photos to find out how to disassemble your particular model.
Advice: next time you will buy external HDD (especially "branded") find photos of internals and another user's reports if particular model has separate HDD and USB bridge board and is it difficult to disassemble enclosure. Then make your decision whether to buy this model or another.
And as usual, be very carefull with your HDDs. In modern HDDs heads are flying just a 5 nanometers (5/1000.000.000 meters!) over a plate surface. It's not a thing you can drop in any manner, especially when it works (no matter what manufacturers say about "many G's" in ads, they can't do a thing against physics) or you risk to loose all your data at the moment.
It sounds like the usb port on the drive itself is shot. You can actually take apart the case and pull just the harddrive out and use a hotswap usb harddrive reader and get to your files again
If you need further help, reach me via phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/steven_a67ead41eb5fc62a
SOURCE: computer not recognising my external hard drive????
Hello
My
apologies if this message finds you long after posting this problem ,
but I am currently working through a backlog of problems that never got
answered and hopefully this info can still be of use if not now possibly
in future.
Please download Disc Digger HERE.
This is a free tool you can use that works very well and there is no
installation required, just run the program once you downloaded it.
Once
you have connected the memory disk / hdd to the computer , run the program.
On
the program , select the dig deep option for accidentally deleted files
or dig deeper for a formatted drive. Then select the disk you want to do
the recovery on and run the program.
The data will be displayed
and you can recover it from there. This will only work if the card has
not been used since the data was lost. Save the files to a location
on the computer hard drive and not back to the disk it is recovering from as this will
overwrite the other pictures that still needs to be recovered.
Some of the properties of the files may become lost in the recovery but the pictures should be fine.
You will also only be able to recover certain file types using this method.
Feel free to ask if you need more assistance.
Kind Regards
Andrea
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