I have a buffalo 500gb external hard drive. It has worked fine for me up until now. It has begun to make a clicking noise internally and it says that there is a (code 10) or not able to work. is there anything i can do? it has some important work on it. Ciara

BUFFALO TOOLS Buffalo Tools is a feature-rich suite of optional software included on many Buffalo Drive-Station and Mini Station storage products. Any or all of the following components of Buffalo Tools may be installed on Windows PCs.
Buffalo's Backup Utility is an easy-to-use and fully featured backup software for Windows PCs and can be used to back up one or multiple computers with a single Buffalo external hard drive.ECO Manager is an energy efficiency tool used to conserve energy and reduce battery consumption by regulating the power usage of the hard drive, cutting power to the drive during extended periods of inactivity.RAMDISK is a simple utility that allows you to create a RAM disk on your Windows PC which creates a small, but extremely fast environment to work on files in.SecureLock software for Windows provides complete control of the data encryption on your Buffalo external hard drive, providing password protection and software data encryption.

Only basic external hard drive functionality is supported with this operating system; some included utilities may not work. The HDD default format is NTFS; to work with Mac, reformat the HDD using Mac Disk Utility.

I would plug it into a windows 7 or Vista and the computer's USB. The computer should recognize it. Click start then computer and find the icon for your drive and right click your Icon. In the drop-down window look for 'format' and that should help you format your drive. is a feature-rich suite of optional software included on many Buffalo Drive-Station and Mini Station storage products. Any or all of the following components of Buffalo Tools may be installed on Windows PCs.Buffalo's Backup Utility is an easy-to-use and fully featured backup software for Windows PCs and can be used to back up one or multiple computers with a single Buffalo external hard drive.ECO Manager is an energy efficiency tool used to conserve energy and reduce battery consumption by regulating the power usage of the hard drive, cutting power to the drive during extended periods of inactivity.RAMDISK is a simple utility that allows you to create a RAM disk on your Windows PC which creates a small, but extremely fast environment to work on files in.SecureLock software for Windows provides complete control of the data encryption on your Buffalo external hard drive, providing password protection and software data encryption.

Only basic external hard drive functionality is supported with this operating system; some included utilities may not work. The HDD default format is NTFS; to work with Mac, reformat the HDD using Mac Disk Utility.

I would plug it into a windows 7 or Vista and the computer's USB. The computer should recognize it. Click start then computer and find the icon for your drive and right click your Icon. In the drop-down window look for 'format' and that should help you format your drive.

As virtualhost said, maybe you have not initialize this disk and partition it. Additional to disk mgmt, you could use this software

download Acronis Disk Director Suite via torrent. install the program. open the application. locate the drive that is not working. usually its labeled "unallocated". click on the "Acronis Recovery Expert" button. and again select the drive you want to recover/fixed. there are instructions on how you want the program to run its recovery. its pretty simple. bare in mind before running the application. your hard drive should be connected directly to your PCs USB port and not by any hubs. by this. your computer should be able to read your HD again.

i dont know of any fuses in these usb hard drives

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
sometimes the wires inside the cable will be damaged due to bending or stretching or placing heavy equipment upon the cable,
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,

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 also make sure the computers Ram and Cmos battery are securely seated
if this fails to fix the problem
you might have to install a usb 2 or 3 card they are cheap and easy to install you can buy these on Ebay very cheap
hope this helps

It may caused by loose connection between your External Hard Drive and your PC.. try another USB hub or change your Cable wire... thanks

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
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
click start click on my computer you should see your drive
right click then select format
another way is to control panel administrive tools computer management disk management right click on your drive select format
hope this helps

How about open MyComputer, right click, properties and chose the tab "Tools" and "check now".

This is always a start. On older OS it could be different.

Is it "slow" only on your computer, or also on some other computer?

If it _consistently_ is slow, then it probably has at least a one-year warranty. So, return it to where you bought it, and get it repaired/replaced.

Make sure that u r really connected and chek the device manager is that device working properly and restore the system configuration

audible clicking sound? doesnt sound good. clicking sounds are usually signs of failing HDD....