I have a external, Maxtor Personal Storage 3100. The green light for power comes on and stays on as normal but the amber light for the hard drive doesn't (if flashes twice once powered on and that's it) and I've connected it to different PCs and laptops and they don't recognize it. Any ideas as to what may be wrong? I've taken apart the casing and the connections to the drive itself seem to be ok.

You can find PDF versions of the documentation for this hard drive here. Scroll down to the Personal Storage 3100 to find the relevant links.

As far as the CD is concerned, Maxtor (which is now owned by Seagate) provides the drivers required to use the external drive as downloads on their website as well, which can be found here. If the CD contained more than just drivers, the only other option would be to contact Seagate directly and find out if they are able to send you a replacement.

Borrow or buy a multi-meter, to measure the voltage and amperage output of the power-supply that connects to the enclosure.

Search on eBay for a replacement power-supply -- enter the product-ID that is on the label of the power-adapter.

You can find a power cord for your Maxtor Personal Storage 3100 100 GB Hard Drive here:

http://lcdpayless.com/productpage.php?productId=2503

or

http://www.ecrater.com/p/6553550/ac-dc-power-adapter-maxtor-3100

If you can hear mechanical sounds from the case the problem is in the hard disk and moving it to your laptop isn't the solution. In that case check for a data recovery company at your area as sooner as posible. If the sound is no mechanical I'll tell you the way to move the HD. Describe me the kind of sound.

Stelios

I am having the same problem! I just want to retrive the information on the ehd

Shut it off and unplug it from power. Let it sit for a day before trying to connect again.

Make sure you've rebooted your computer before trying it again.

Hard drives fail sometimes but so do the enclosures to - so you may still have the data.

If it does work - backup everything immediately.

If it's clicking - that's the sound of death for hds.

Hello

OK, at the link below you will be directed to a tip i wrote on this exact error.

Click HERE.

Feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.

Kind regards
Andrea

What is your operating system? Have you tried to force install this hardware? I need to know this before I can begin to troubleshoot.

Ryan Frame
Creative Energy Associates Technical Center

Solution:
First, disconnect the power cable from the back of the external hard drive:
If the power supply LED continues to blink:

1. Connect the power supply to a different outlet (or instead of connecting to a power strip, connect directly to an outlet in the wall).
   
   
2. If the power supply continues to blink after changing outlets, this indicates that the power supply is defective and needs to be replaced.
   
   
3. If the power supply stays solid, then reconnect to the external hard drive and see if the drive spins.

If the computer is connected to the power line, even if it is shutdown, you probably have in the BIOS settings the option to power it on from external sources like LAN, USB etc that is turned ON. So the USB port are still powered hence the external HDD is powered also.