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They're not true drives? What is that supposed to mean? Its the same exact drive you'd find in any computer except it has an IDE or SATA to USB bridge board on it.
And I can't tell you how many bad hard drives I've worked on but its a lot more than 15.
The only reason I even mentioned the adapter on Newegg is because I use a similar device all the time for various tasks and I thought the OP might be reluctant to open their computer and start moving wired around. USB is a lot easier for most people to deal with and it a good tool to have around anyway. Also, in my experience, even if the drive itself is bad, more often than not connecting the drive will still result in a Windows "ta-da" sound because it knows something is there, even if the drive inside is toast. And a non-expert may mistake normal clicking from dead drive clicking so there's still a chance the drive inside is working.
My external hard drive worked fine yesterday then last night after losing power a few times during the night (computer was shut down) when I went to open up my E drive (external hard drive) it was no where on my computer screen or identified by my computer. It was not listed in MY COMPUTER, nor in my Device manager. Anyone else ever had this problem? I don't have anything backed up and I have a lot of things on my external hard drive. HELP!
What is the make & model of the drive?
Do you have a branded computer (Compaq, HP, Dell)? If so, post the brand & model number
It does care.. do you really understand what you wrote?
What you wrote was this.. if the drive is okay then hooking it by a new USB adapter will fix it.. cause obviously your old one is BROKEN.. or are you claiming there's some magical difference between the power supply and usb adapter inside the case and the one you suggested they order? (now granted as troubleshooting this eliminates 2 variables but they've already given a problem description of clicking hard drive.. that's a really, really GOOD hint)
I have repaired a USB hard drive simply because it needed a chkdsk run.. understand what I'm saying.. these USB hard drives can go down with a minuet amount of data corruption.. they are not true drives they are USB drives and that usb controller does not work like a real SATA or IDE controller
We can argue semantics all day long.. but given that I have at least in my time dealt with 15+ failed hard drives and recovered data and sometimes NOT, my experience trumps your ADVICE.
EscapeCalifornia's experience has never been questioned here before. If the forum need to know how many failed hard disks we've seen, a poll could be conducted. In my experience, all of these techniques are useful, but you never know which one will work on any particular drive.
In my experience USB usually never works and that's more then 1 device I'm talking about here.. (I carry around one of those USB devices with me for field work) but that doesn't mean that when I charge $$$ for data recovery I bother much with it.. cause usually the hard drive is in bad shape already and ONLY responds to real computers..
More then that I carry around a PCMCIA to Sata adapter but once again I wouldn't even recommend that cause it's not a true adapter..
My bottom line statement is that a USB IDE/Sata adapter is a waste of money/resources and that a real computer is the better way to go.. if your troubleshooting this yourself..
We can argue the point forever but no one here can really prove the point..
I will repeat what I've said his advice is the same thing as saying that the USB or power supply has broke inside of the case (this is infact does happen.. I once repaired 2x 250 gb raided drives that blew the whole adapter) but with a problem description of clicking that invalidates power mostly (it's spinning) and it likely invalidates the USB argument.. thus California advised that the person spend extra money on something they already HAVE.. I give a 90% rating that this person can stick in any other drive into that case and have it work.. and now I’ve given a point of testing to prove it.
Your first course of action is the one you are taking. Have your husband plug it into a computer at work to see if it is recognized.
Your second is to test the drive outside the case it came in to find out if the circuit board in the case is blown. You've been given two methods for doing this: Purchase the external adapter as noted by Escape, or plug it into a cable in your computer as noted by Escape and The. The best method is, obviously, to open your computer case and plug it into the cable. But (there is always a but), some computer makers only put a cable in with one connector, which means you will have to buy a cable with two connectors on it. If the cable already has two then you're good to go.
Connecting the drive to a known good system will tell you if it is working, and if it is you can get the data from it to your internal drive (if there is room) so you can work on getting the drive working in an external case again. Or you can leave in the computer and use it there.
There are a couple of gotchas in all this. Depending on the age and brand of the computer/motherboard the connectors may be either PATA or SATA. PATA is older and is likely what the external is using. This type is connected by a wide, flat ribbon cable. SATA uses a smaller cable and the connector is much smaller. Here's a comparison.
Hey there, i hope someone could help me with my problem... my 2.5" external hard disk fell to the ground while i was transferring files from the disk into the computer... i could hear sounds even before the accident happen, but i don't know what kind of sounds would indicate if it's still okay or not.. i don't really need to recover anything from it, i just need for it to work, so i can still store some of my files in it... please tell me what might be wrong with my disk, if it's damaged or not? how could it be fixed? PLEASE...ASAP... THANKS A LOT... =D
Hey there, i hope someone could help me with my problem... my 2.5" external hard disk fell to the ground while i was transferring files from the disk into the computer... i could hear sounds even before the accident happen, but i don't know what kind of sounds would indicate if it's still okay or not.. i don't really need to recover anything from it, i just need for it to work, so i can still store some of my files in it... please tell me what might be wrong with my disk, if it's damaged or not? how could it be fixed? PLEASE...ASAP... THANKS A LOT... =D
Teppi, start a new thread. Two reasons:
1. It is rue to tag yours on the end of an existing thread, and
2. You will have a much better chance of someone seeing it. Most will assume this thread is "dead" because it's been idle so long and not look.
I HAVE A 1TB ROCK MOBILE DISK, and was working fine I have some data on their i dont want to lose, we formatted the computer now it doesnt show up in my computer but it does show up in device manager no red marks all is fine, what are my options can some one please help
I'd suggest you check in disk management and see if you need to force the USB connected drive to map to an unused drive letter. That often fixes the problem of a portable drive not showing up.
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Need help with external hdd
