I just need my hard drive to mount one last time
August 12, 2010 10:02 PM   Subscribe

I just need my hard drive to mount one last time...

I was noticing that my external hard drive (with all my music on it) was making a strange noise, and not mounting consistently. I promptly purchased a new hard drive so I could transfer everything over. But when I came home and tried to execute the transfer, the old drive stopped mounting completely. It just makes a sad noise for a while, then goes quiet and its blue light blinks forever.

I just need the drive to mount one more time. Any advice?
posted by malhouse to Computers & Internet (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
There is likely nothing wrong with the drive itself; I'd wager you just need a new power supply for it. If you can't lay your hands on that, a new external case would come with a new power supply.

The last three enclosures I bought have had power supplies that went bad after a year or two.
posted by kindall at 10:06 PM on August 12, 2010


Stick it in the freezer.
posted by special-k at 10:13 PM on August 12, 2010


special-k: "Stick it in the freezer."

I was able to rescue most of the data from a mostly dead hard drive thanks to that and some blue ice packs.
posted by Memo at 10:23 PM on August 12, 2010


I also did the freezing thing once -- I worked in a physics lab, and we used some LN2 to slowly cool the drive down. Once it was well below freezing, we did a full disk clone (keeping it cool with more LN2), and we got everything off. Once it warmed back up, it was dead for good.

Next time, I will put the drive in an air-free bag, so that water does not condense and freeze Somewhere Important.
posted by jrockway at 10:26 PM on August 12, 2010


While I've heard great tales of the freezer reviving hard drives, I had two drives go bad last month in a similar way (on separate computers!) and the freezer trick did nothing for them. Nor did percussive maintenance. (ie: Smacking it.)

I'd check the power supply thing if it's externally supplied. If it's buss powered (USB or internal) try a different port and/or cable.

(And I hope I don't have to tell you to revise your backup plans to take action well before there are signs of trouble.)
posted by Ookseer at 10:32 PM on August 12, 2010


Can I just say that while sticking a hard drive in the freezer is actually a legitimate solution, I'm not sure that I would be tempted to try it with an entire external drive, with housing and electronics components etc. Get it out of its housing first.
posted by turgid dahlia at 10:36 PM on August 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


Meta Filter: Percussive maintenance, ie: Smacking it.

I did the cold fusion method and had marginal results. I think it depends on what the issue is obviously. I would try an enclosure and the freezing bit. I have changed power supplies for my pc that had (pun intended) magical powers on the computer. It ran so much smoother without a lot of the noises that sound like things are straining to get up the hill.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:59 PM on August 12, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks everyone. Some research into the power supply I'm using reveals that it's apparently notorious for failing, so I just ordered one that is apparently interchangeable, but made by a better company. Hope it works.
posted by malhouse at 11:42 PM on August 12, 2010


Good to hear. For anyone else who comes along this thread, I had an external drive get fried by a lightning strike (near the house, not a direct hit or anything cool), even though it was plugged into a big APC surge protector. All it actually did was fry the housing. I extracted the drive (literally) and plugged it into an empty bay (SCSI makes life easier) and it's lived there happily ever after.
posted by yerfatma at 6:25 AM on August 13, 2010


In cases like these, I just take apart the enclosure, remove the drive and mount it straight into my desktop. Most likely, its a SATA drive. Enclosure failures are pretty common. The drive itself may be just fine. Don't whack it or freeze it until you've tried this. You may damage a perfectly good drive using these last ditch attempts.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:17 AM on August 13, 2010


I've saved data off a dead drive once by swapping the logic board with an identical drive.
posted by Nelson at 8:47 AM on August 13, 2010


damn dirty ape gives good advice. If you remove the drive from the enclosure and connect it directly, that eliminates both (1) power supply and (2) the enclosure circuitry as potential sources of error.
posted by Galvatron at 6:07 PM on August 13, 2010


« Older What are the side effects of general anesthetic?   |   Creative or English Literature masters? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.