External Hard Drive Problem

[A. Havnes]

I was wondering if anyone could help me with this problem. I was using a computer with an external hard drive plugged into it, but the account wouldn't start up as long as the drive was plugged in, so I had to remove it. Afterwards, the external drive will no longer stay on and the computer won't recognize it. I got it to work once on a separate computer, but even that won't work anymore.

Is it the case or did something weird happen? I can't figure out what would have happened.

 

[ctiger2]

plug the drive in and navigate to your device manager and uninstall the USB host controllers. Then, let windows reinstall the USB controllers and it should be re-recognized. It's a windows issue with plug/play USB drives.

 

[A. Havnes]

plug the drive in and navigate to your device manager and uninstall the USB host controllers. Then, let windows reinstall the USB controllers and it should be re-recognized. It's a windows issue with plug/play USB drives.

Except that it won't work on any computer, and even after doing that it still won't stay on long enough for the computer to notice it. The computer it got screwed up on was an XP. I got it to work one time on a Vista, but it won't work any longer.

When I plug it in, it sounds like it's starting up, but then the lights go out and it just stops.

 

[brandon]

I'm assuming the hard drive is powered by a wall outlet, and not directly from USB, correct? And you're saying that when you plug in the power supply, the lights come on and it starts spinning for a couple seconds and then shuts down? And when you say plugging it in, do you mean connecting both the USB and Power adapter, or just one or the other?

It sounds like it's not going to be easy to fix. First thing to check for is loose connections. Is the cable damaged at all? Is the connector damaged at all? Can you wiggle it around and get it to work? If not, then open up the hard drive case. Look for more loose connections on the inside. Any wires frayed anywhere or obviously bent parts?

 

[ctiger2]

Sounds like a bad drive then. Try a known good drive.

 

[slamhead]

You might want to take a look at your power saving settings either in Winblows or in the bios. It could be the power to the USB is being turned off after a time of no use.

 

[emazur]

Try removing the hard drive from it's current enclosure and put it in a new enclosure. And if you have a desktop, try connecting it as a secondary internal drive after removing it from the hd enclosure

 

[A. Havnes]

I'm assuming the hard drive is powered by a wall outlet, and not directly from USB, correct? And you're saying that when you plug in the power supply, the lights come on and it starts spinning for a couple seconds and then shuts down? And when you say plugging it in, do you mean connecting both the USB and Power adapter, or just one or the other?

It sounds like it's not going to be easy to fix. First thing to check for is loose connections. Is the cable damaged at all? Is the connector damaged at all? Can you wiggle it around and get it to work? If not, then open up the hard drive case. Look for more loose connections on the inside. Any wires frayed anywhere or obviously bent parts?

Sorry about the lack of clarification. When I plug in the wall outlet, it begins to start up and then dies. If I could get it to stay on long enough, I'd be able to tell whether or not the computer recognizes it. I'm beginning to think something happened to the enclosure.

Also, my two other external drives work as well as my USB flash drive. This didn't act up at all, or show any signs of slowing down, until I had to unplug it to log on to an account I was transferring programs to. I've never actually had this kind of thing happen before. I've had drives die on me, break, or any other manner of things, but I've never seen a drive just die after being unplugged.

 

[LibertyRevolution]

It sounds like your drive died, or the board on the enclosure died.

Take the HDD out the enclosure and put it in your PC hardwired and see if you can access it.
If the drive works, then the board in your enclosure prolly blew a something.

If you don't have a PC, then you will need another enclosure or one these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

I love this little adapter. It lets you hook up any type of drive externally to a usb.
I bought mine so I could hook up an old 5.25" dvd-rom from an old tower of mine to the work netbook so we could watch movies at work.
My boss thought he was so slick buying netbooks so we couldn't watch movies, LULZ!
I also use it to backup my pc onto a spare hdd I have in the closet, and I used it to clone my laptops HDD to an SSD.

*NOTE:
ALWAYS plug the power adapter into the wall first, then plug the adapter into the drive, then turn on the power switch on the adapter.
If you do it in any other order you risk frying your drive from a power spike.
This is good advice for any device that has a transformer on the power side.

I know a thing or 2 about HDD's, here are my credentials :

That is the media PC.

 

[evilfunnystuff]

Try another usb cable.

I gave my parents a 2TB Hitachi external that kept disconecting for no apparent reason. Before sending it back, I tried another usb cable, and haven't had an issue since.

 

[nekha123]

I believe this would help him to understand and resolve the problem.