Topic: External HD problems

[dmonterisi]

Ok, so i have a Western Digital external USB2.0/Firewire combo drive...It has a bunch of music files on it.  It worked fine for about 2 weeks then all of a sudden this weekend it stopped being recognized so I got a new firewire/usb combo card (my old one was just usb 2.0) and tried it out on the firewire connection.  It was recognized and seemed to work okay.  Now all of a sudden, it won't be recognized.  Under the device manager, it is recognized as one of the Hard Drives, but I can not see it in the Windows Explorer.  If i unplug it, and plug it back in, the drive stutters internally and then simply cools down.  Windows still recognizes it in the Device Manager but not Explorer.  Any thoughts?  P4 2.0 ghz, 512 Ram, Win XP Home.

thanks
-damon

[Simp-Dawg]

hrrm...i have had problems similar to this i think....try looking for it in computer management, if you can see it there you should be able to assign a drive letter to it.

[rabhan]

i wanna know if you get this fixed bc i am about to get an external hdd. now a little hesitant. will another machine recognize the drive?

[dmonterisi]

i'm gonna mess around with it more tonight and i'll let you know...it doesn't make any sense...it worked fine for a while then just stopped working.

[Wes]

damon-
is that the drive you sent to me?

[dmonterisi]

yep...all of a sudden, it's not recognizing it.  strange.

[Sean Gallemore]

winxp home...

[rokpunk]

my usb2.0 drive does the same thing. i usually just reboot and winblows finds it again. kind of a pain in the ass.

[dmonterisi]

i went into one of the accessories programs last night (i think called system information) and when i clicked on drives or media or something like that where it gives info on your hard drives, it had my other 2 drvies listed as well as the External Drive, however in the line entitled "media loaded" it said "no" while for the others it said yes.  So, my guess is that it's some kind of defect with the drive itself, which sucks cause i'm gonna lose 100 gigs worth of wes' 24 bit stuff  

if anyone has any further suggestions, i'd appreciate them...schwilly, why do you think it might have to do with XP home?

-damon

[rabhan]

damon, try pluggin it into another machine?

[rabhan]

well, on that note and on my experience with WDs, i am gonna get the maxtor and not the WD ext drive.....120G USB2/Firewire1394 for 232$

[BC]

As a last ditch resort if you really want the data back you can send it in to one of those data recovery services that advertise in the back of computer magazines. Maybe you can have the cost compensated by WD since they come with a 3 year warranty?? (at least the 120 GB 7200 RPM one I just got does) .


Hey Rabhan-
As far as getting an external drive you can save some $ by buying the enclosure and HD separately, check pricewatch.com for HD's , I wouldn't pay more than $1/GB, you can find 120GB drives on sale for $90 or so, combo firewire and  USB 2.0 enclosures should be in the $60-70 range.


Take care,
Ben

[sexymexi]

thats weird, i've had mine for over a year, and had no problems...  only been wonderful...  but i did have problems initially but i had to designate a specific drive letter for it, and i had no other problems, cause it first when i plugged it in was drive E, and thats my burner's letter, so i just changed it, and it's worked fine since then..

[mirth]

Maybe you can have the cost compensated by WD since they come with a 3 year warranty?? (at least the 120 GB 7200 RPM one I just got does) .

Good luck on that.... Data is the responsibility of the owner, not the manufacturer. On the positive side, most of the good recovery places will work with manufacturers if a drive is under warranty so they can give you your data back on the new drive but its big bux.

[rokpunk]

stick the "faulty" hard drive in a differnt machine and see what happens.