She don't go.
September 24, 2011 9:23 AM Subscribe
Is my external hard drive history?
Six months or so ago, I bought a 1-terabyte iOmega external hard drive and have used it semi-regularly since then. As of a couple of days ago, when I plug it into the USB port on my laptop (running Windows 7, if it matters), I get nothing -- the laptop fails to recognize it as an external drive.
I have switched out cables, and also tried it on a second laptop, but still nothing, and I have unplugged the other peripherals (a mouse is usually all that is plugged into the USB ports) just in case it was a problem with the USB hub on the laptop itself, but still no go. I tried other ports on the machine, but still nothing. Other external drives work fine: I plugged my electronic reader into the same port, and it worked as ever.
A couple of possibly pertinent facts:
1. Up until now, when I have plugged the external drive in, a small green power light has gone on on it; now it illuminates only if I jiggle the mini-USB cable running into it.
2. Two or three times the last couple of days, I have seen an error message appear onscreen (lower right, just above the tray) telling me that a USB device is not recognized. As there was never anything but the mouse plugged in, I ignored it. It wasn't until later I thought it might be connected to this, but I have not seen it since yesterday.
3. Oddest of all, since the issue with the external drive started, going into the Computer selection on the Start menu (where I had expected to see the external drive listed as G: or whatever it was), I now see he internal (C:), the DVD drive (D:), and under Other, I have the heretofore unseen Y:, which is listed merely as Local Disk, with a tiny question mark superimposed over the icon.
I am not especially worried if the external drive itself is history, but there is data from a half-dozen sources on there that would be a pain to pull together again, including a spreadsheet I had been working on for weeks, so it would be nice to be able to pull it off somehow before it dies forever, and 6-8 months is really a much shorter time than I figured this thing would last. Is the mysterious Y: involved in this somehow?
Six months or so ago, I bought a 1-terabyte iOmega external hard drive and have used it semi-regularly since then. As of a couple of days ago, when I plug it into the USB port on my laptop (running Windows 7, if it matters), I get nothing -- the laptop fails to recognize it as an external drive.
I have switched out cables, and also tried it on a second laptop, but still nothing, and I have unplugged the other peripherals (a mouse is usually all that is plugged into the USB ports) just in case it was a problem with the USB hub on the laptop itself, but still no go. I tried other ports on the machine, but still nothing. Other external drives work fine: I plugged my electronic reader into the same port, and it worked as ever.
A couple of possibly pertinent facts:
1. Up until now, when I have plugged the external drive in, a small green power light has gone on on it; now it illuminates only if I jiggle the mini-USB cable running into it.
2. Two or three times the last couple of days, I have seen an error message appear onscreen (lower right, just above the tray) telling me that a USB device is not recognized. As there was never anything but the mouse plugged in, I ignored it. It wasn't until later I thought it might be connected to this, but I have not seen it since yesterday.
3. Oddest of all, since the issue with the external drive started, going into the Computer selection on the Start menu (where I had expected to see the external drive listed as G: or whatever it was), I now see he internal (C:), the DVD drive (D:), and under Other, I have the heretofore unseen Y:, which is listed merely as Local Disk, with a tiny question mark superimposed over the icon.
I am not especially worried if the external drive itself is history, but there is data from a half-dozen sources on there that would be a pain to pull together again, including a spreadsheet I had been working on for weeks, so it would be nice to be able to pull it off somehow before it dies forever, and 6-8 months is really a much shorter time than I figured this thing would last. Is the mysterious Y: involved in this somehow?
Start with something like this to figure out if it's the enclosure. A failed enclosure, incidentally, is a lot more likely than a failed drive, and even if it is the drive, don't panic - there are ways to recover data off failed drives that are cheap and work pretty well.
posted by mhoye at 9:50 AM on September 24, 2011
posted by mhoye at 9:50 AM on September 24, 2011
I've had problems with external drives that were caused by the power brick, not the drive. That's the first thing to check, if you can find another power brick with the same voltage and plug.
After that, it could be either the enclosure or the drive, as supercres says.
posted by nowonmai at 9:51 AM on September 24, 2011
After that, it could be either the enclosure or the drive, as supercres says.
posted by nowonmai at 9:51 AM on September 24, 2011
I am not an engineer, and would love to hear from one as to whether I'm wrong, but from my personal experiences with external hard drives, it is my opinion that they consist of 4 things:
1) a pretty enclosure that does nothing but make it look pretty
2) a real honest to gosh hard drive like you would buy to put inside your computer
3) a *tiny* amount of USB to hard drive interface hardware inside
4) a power brick that is probably the cheapest they could find and is undersized for powering a hard drive
As support for above non-expert theory I offer my experience. I have owned 3 external hard drives. The La Cie lasted a while and then started acting crazy, Google hits said to hold the power brick up to my ear and listen for arcing sounds, which I heard. Contacted La Cie who shipped me new power brick, has been OK since then. Seagate external hard drive with a shorter warranty, same problem, tore the thing apart, took the hard drive out and stuck it in my file server, no problems at all in the couple years since. Third drive a Simple Tech, the oldest, never a problem, probably some engineer who decided to use a properly sized power brick.
As I said, if anyone knows I'm wrong, please correct me.
posted by forthright at 3:31 PM on September 24, 2011
1) a pretty enclosure that does nothing but make it look pretty
2) a real honest to gosh hard drive like you would buy to put inside your computer
3) a *tiny* amount of USB to hard drive interface hardware inside
4) a power brick that is probably the cheapest they could find and is undersized for powering a hard drive
As support for above non-expert theory I offer my experience. I have owned 3 external hard drives. The La Cie lasted a while and then started acting crazy, Google hits said to hold the power brick up to my ear and listen for arcing sounds, which I heard. Contacted La Cie who shipped me new power brick, has been OK since then. Seagate external hard drive with a shorter warranty, same problem, tore the thing apart, took the hard drive out and stuck it in my file server, no problems at all in the couple years since. Third drive a Simple Tech, the oldest, never a problem, probably some engineer who decided to use a properly sized power brick.
As I said, if anyone knows I'm wrong, please correct me.
posted by forthright at 3:31 PM on September 24, 2011
The cases die far more easily than the drives, in my experience (and I've killed a few of each).
posted by pompomtom at 5:03 PM on September 24, 2011
posted by pompomtom at 5:03 PM on September 24, 2011
Mini-USB connectors suck. They're too bloody small to handle the mechanical loads that even a small amount of sideways force from a cable puts on them, which means they frequently break off the circuit boards that their pitifully small surface mount solder pads are supposed to hold them onto. I will never again buy a USB external drive or enclosure that doesn't have a proper full-size USB B connector.
Go grab yourself a nice Vantec enclosure and remount your drive in that.
posted by flabdablet at 12:24 AM on September 25, 2011
Go grab yourself a nice Vantec enclosure and remount your drive in that.
posted by flabdablet at 12:24 AM on September 25, 2011
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posted by supercres at 9:39 AM on September 24, 2011