external hard drive problems

[kartvines]

I have a Maxtor 500 GB external hard drive just over a year old, I have had no problems with it at all, earlier today I turned it off to run a clean up program, when I turned it back on, it would not work, the light comes on, and I can hear clinking inside but nothing works.

I have learned sometimes with computer problems I have turned things off for a few hours and then re-start and things may work again, does not happen all of the time. any way I paid a lot of money for this drive, and I hate to lose all of my data, I won't pay to have it recovered, too much money, any ideas before I throw it against the nearest wall?

[Podunkfla]

It may just be as simple as a corrupted driver? Have you tried selecting the drive in Disk Utility and then doing "Repair Disk"? If that fails...

You can probably recover the files by using a 3rd-party utility like "Data Rescue" or "FileSalvage" or "Virtual Lab" or the command-line utility 'ddrescue' (google to find them, note also that ddrescue was discussed in an article on the main macosxhints site).
The last one is free, but needs a bit of expertise to use. And it will need another disk of the size of the one you want to recover data from.

There is a good possibility that DiskWarrior will be able to fix your drive as well. Of course this costs money too: http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/

Maybe some of the other 'puter geeks will have some ideas I haven't thought of?

[kartvines]

Thank for the thoughts but I reinstalled all of the software, drivers and nothing works, it is not even recognized.
The software has a diagnose feature and it say it can not find the drive.
I will check into the site you mentioned,. I just can see shy just shutting it off would cause a problem like this.

[rbeemer]

What operating system are you running? What is the manufacturer of the hard drive

You can turn off the computer completely then disconnect the hard drive and then start the computer without the hard drive connected. Then depending on operating system you can plug the dive back in and it should try to install it as new hardware - I know it is not but one of the drivers could have gotten corrupted during your cleanup and needs to be re-installed

[kartvines]

I am running Windows XP home, I tried to do all of that and it would not see the drive, the drive is a Maxtor one touch 111, USB 500 GB.

[Podunkfla]

I have also had a recalcitrant drive that I couldn't figure out... I took it over to a buddy's house and plugged it in (USB 2.0) and it booted right up? We ran disc cleanup on it and I took it home and it worked. I still don't know what exactly was wrong? And, I'm still using the drive 2 years later.

[kartvines]

I just tried plugging it into my new laptop and it also did not recognize the drive, so no clean up program would work on a drive that it can not see.

[Micro469]

Try taking the hardrive out of the case and mounting it directly in the computer and see if it rcognizes it. Make sure it's set to slave.....

[asianflava]

Might have been it's time to go.

[Micro469]

Maxtor is a good name brand. It should last longer than a year. Usually hardrives have a three yaear warranty. If you can't get it towork, I would call maxtor...

[Denny Unfried]

I've recovered HD data by putting the drive into a ziplock bag and then into the freezer for about half an hour. Most of the time it will work long enough to transfer your data if it's just a component going sour.

Denny

[Juneaudave]

Our company bought a bunch of those Maxtor 500 g usb external hard drives. The one I was using failed just like described....We called a data recovery service and they were able go guess the Model and size before I even told them what it was. I think there is a bad batch of one year old Maxtors floating around..

[Ira]

I got the same drive--but for a MAC and a lot older. And I run into the same thing from time to time.

Don't worry--your data is fine.

First, use any disk utility program. Sometimes, when the app looks for drives, it will mount it. If that doesn't work, find someone with a Mac and hook it up. Depending on how it was formatted, it may mount. This will at least give you the option to burn your files to a DVD.

Finally, play with the Firewire plug (it's Firewire, right?) and plug and unplug it a few times. reboot. Also, your drive has TWO firewire ports on it, right? So change it to the OTHER one. And again, reboot.

It'll mount eventually--don't fear.

[Juneaudave]

It'll mount eventually--don't fear.

I agree...don't fear...just reconcile yourself to the fact that the data is lost unless you want to go to an expensive data recovery service. I'm a guessin the faint tick..tick...tick is the sound of death, and the partitions are gone!!!!



I personaly like the freezer idea, the hook it up to the Mac idea, and the take it out of the case and hook it up as a slave drive idea. But being a skeptic...that tick...tick...tick...noise ain't a good sign. Let me know if any of the ideas work!!! I'll be the first to eat my words, bow humbly, and kiss the ground upon which the person with the solution walks!!!

[kartvines]

No it is not firewire it is USB , if I could get the drive to work, I may be able to use utilities for recovering it, but as I said before it seems as if nothing is working ,. normally when it is working the front light flashes, and since the failure the light no longer flashes.

I booted, rebooted. removed the cable, restored the cable many times, I have done everything that has been recommended with the exception of the freezer, which I will try later today, I am still open to all ideas, as far as the clicking, you can not even hear that unless you put the drive right against your ear.