I have a 320 GB Simpletech external hard drive in dark cherry with considerable dats and pictures stored in it, but I have lost the cable or adapter that may drive the unit. With the USB cable, the elliptical red light goes on when it is plugged into the computer but is unrecognized by the computer to transfer data. What is missing is another power supply cable that plugs into a small circular hole at the rear of the unit. Can this power (?) adapter be purchased sepately? Or how else can I get the data from the hard drive? Dr. Stuart Atkins

Hello, thanks for using FIXYA,
have you had try to format the external drive, do that then try to copy again.
Let me know if that works

Thanks
Rate this solution please

Here is the manual that covers all of the SimpleTech Signature Mini External USB 2.0 Hard Drives. This is a pdf document, so you may need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader if you don't already have it installed.

Hard Drive Manual

Regards,
Dan

No driver is required to use the drive. Try another cable or another port on the computer. If you are using it bus-powered, try using a USB "Y" cable as some computers cannot provide enough power through one port. If you need more help, please call HitachiGST Tech Support M-F 8AM to 6PM PST at 1.888.426.5214 and a technician will be happy to help you.

Possibilities:
1. dead USB port on your computer -- try another port
2. try a different USB cable
3. try your external drive on some other computer, to see if it works at all
4. open the casing, and separate the disk-drive from the USB-to-disk-drive adapter. Connect the disk-drive as a "slave" disk-drive, thus bypassing that adapter, to see if the adapter has failed, or if the disk-drive itself has failed
5. Google-search for a commercial "data recovery service" -- such companies can disassemble your disk-drive, and fix it, just long-enough to copy all your photos/music onto a brand-new disk-drive.

Hello,
Try to go through disk management and see if it works?
Open control panel then select administrative tools then disk management. Then in left column click disk management.
If you locate it may be it must be initialise by the system or need to create partition by formatting.
You can also check all the cables , the power cables the adapter , try to change the Usb cable also..
ok
Good luck !!

See this support link "FAQs and Troubleshooting Tips":

• http://www.simpletech.com/support/faq/portable_hard_disk_drives.php#1

It needs a 12V 1.5A adapter. But if the light was on for a short while, and it doesn't do anything anymore with the same adapter.. Doesn't sound very good.. I wish you all the luck with the external HDD!

I have the 320GB Simpletech External Hard Drive.
The AC adapter Model number is SAWA-05-153
The output is +12V --- 1.5A

It has to do with the way computers count. Computers count in binary where we count in decimal.
Hard drive makers list there drives capacities in the decimal format, where windows lists it in it's binary format.
Wikipedia has a good explanation.

Also, the drive may have some preinstalled software on it that could be taking up a bit of space (it's usually not much).

i doubt you can do anything about it. Code 10 is a hardware failure, so you will have to return it and get your warrenty.