My Iomega external hard drive died... Any chance of getting it going again? Or getting the drive(s) out and into another case? [more inside]
posted by rleamon on Dec 4, 2009 - 7 answers

until today, my laptop wont read and open up my external hard drive. i haven't unplugged it without safely removing it or anything either. it also makes this constant tapping noise, like the sound of a tap dripping. (which it never used to make) does anyone know what i can do to make my laptop find my external or fix it? cheers
posted by sockpim on Sep 5, 2009 - 9 answers

There are currently 4 File Browsers open on my desktop, all displaying either the contents of my external hard drive or the folder where it's mounted (/media/). I didn't open them—they just showed up. This morning when I woke up there was 40+ File Browser windows open of the same. Another window just opened; it seems to occur at random intervals. I'm running Ubuntu Linux 8.10, wtf is causing this? [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Apr 2, 2009 - 11 answers

Why Can't I Copy My iTunes Library to an External Drive? [more inside]
posted by Gingercat on Mar 3, 2009 - 11 answers

Anyone own one of these? MvixBOX. I'm wondering if it lived up to your expectations.
posted by Area Control on Feb 8, 2009 - 3 answers

Will operating an external hard drive at a 45 degree angle significantly reduce its life? [more inside]
posted by pseudonick on Dec 21, 2008 - 14 answers

I've just bought an external hard drive for carrying around my music, movies, and pictures. Is there a portable media centre program I could also put on it? [more inside]
posted by edbyford on Dec 16, 2008 - 7 answers

My external hard drive just crashed so can anyone suggest a Portland, OR, based data recovery service?
posted by tangyraspberry on Aug 25, 2008 - 9 answers

My Seagate FreeAgent external HD may have been damaged in a move. Making clicking noises and not being detected by my computer. [more inside]
posted by Mr_Crazyhorse on Aug 19, 2008 - 9 answers

Can I get my WD external hard drive back to the way it was? [more inside]
posted by droplet on Aug 19, 2008 - 8 answers

Great MeFites, I come bearing but a humble request. I bought a MacBook Pro about six months before Leopard was released. When it finally came out, I installed it on a partition on an external drive, which I would boot from (because OS X is awesome like that, amirite?) so I could test out all my apps. Now I'm ready to commit to Leopard full-time - what's the best way to go about transplanting my Leopard partition? [more inside]
posted by indiewizard on Aug 18, 2008 - 6 answers

Is there a desktop search solution that will index my external hard drives? So far I have had no luck with Google Desktop search.
posted by greenknightwatch on Aug 16, 2008 - 9 answers

I have a Fantom Drive 500GB 7200RPM USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - MDU500. The connection for the power cable came loose from the board and nothing I tried could get it to power up. I removed the drives and connected them to a Linux box running Ubuntu 8.04. It saw the two drives as one and even knew the drive name I'd given it. However I cannot get it to mount. The error message in Linux suggests trying SoftRAID or dmraid. Dmraid didn't work. (At least I couldn't get it to.) The message also suggested trying to access the drives in Windows. Windows XP will also see the drive as one unit but wants to format the drive. Can someone provide me some advice or direction in how I might get this drive to a state where I can move my data onto another drive? [more inside]
posted by s1gn1fy on Jul 24, 2008 - 5 answers

My external hard-drive's on the fritz. What can I do to make sure I get all my data off it before it goes? [more inside]
posted by djgh on Jun 3, 2008 - 5 answers

What kind of external hard drive should I buy? [more inside]
posted by missjamielynn on Apr 20, 2008 - 27 answers

I think I'm finally switching to Ubuntu on my main machine. I have two 160GB external drives, currently both with NTFS, currently mirrored (by software, not a RAID). With what and how should I format/use these guys? [more inside]
posted by tmcw on Mar 14, 2008 - 8 answers

I have an external hard drive on my Christmas list. I'd like to make the shopping easy on them by giving specific choices. I've done some searching (here and via Gooooogle) but I need that extra oomph from the genius that is the hive mind. [more inside]
posted by Epsilon-minus semi moron on Dec 9, 2007 - 12 answers

Are there any particularly awesome external firewire hard drive enclosures that I should be aware about? [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Oct 29, 2007 - 7 answers

When using an external hard-drive with a Mac, is a speed advantage gained by using a drive formatted with HFS+ (over FAT32/etc.)? And while I'm asking... [more inside]
posted by wavejumper on Oct 29, 2007 - 11 answers

I have a Mac laptop, which replaced my PC which I used for many years.....I recently found out that there is some files and such on my PC that I need to take of my computer and store onto my new external hard drive....Yes, I should of did this before hand.... [more inside]
posted by TwilightKid on Sep 20, 2007 - 12 answers

External Hard drive USB device not recognized, how do I fix? [more inside]
posted by complience on May 26, 2007 - 9 answers

External hard drive failure: halp! [more inside]
posted by Lockeownzj00 on Apr 22, 2007 - 5 answers

My Lacie Big D2 500gb external hard drive is no longer seen on my powerbook or pc – how would I retrieve the data off it without handing it to a data recovery company? [more inside]
posted by Johnny Showbiz on Jan 5, 2007 - 10 answers

I have a hard disk that I pulled out of a dead computer. It has been formated and has data on it. Are there any external adapters that I can plug it into so that I can use it as an external drive?
posted by mtstover on Sep 30, 2006 - 13 answers

A little help please in getting my computer to fully recognize an external hard drive. [more inside]
posted by gfrobe on Jan 21, 2006 - 5 answers

My external USB Hard Drive is freezing my PC! [more inside]
posted by Kiwi on Jan 12, 2006 - 4 answers

iTunesFilter. How can I have iTune "see" tracks already present on my external drive? OS 10.4.2 [more inside]
posted by cahlers on Jan 7, 2006 - 8 answers

How can I get an External Hard Drive to show up in WinXP SP2 again? [more inside]
posted by mdbell79 on Dec 18, 2005 - 4 answers

A few questions about our Pro-Tools setup. [more inside]
posted by jon_kill on Dec 12, 2005 - 7 answers

I am turning to the Meta community for help since I am at a loss on how to answer this question. A good friend of mine has suddenly lost a lot of data from an external drive that he keeps on all the time. He has a Western Digital 320GB drive that stores mostly live recording of the DMB. The drive reads as 298GB total size and 78GB free space, but the only folder on the external is showing that there is only 123GB of data being stored (therefore ~98GB of data is missing). He has searched the drive for the folders but they are not showing up. Any idea of what could have happened to his files? Also, would it be safe to shut down the external (since its always on) and see if that fixes the problem?
posted by Number27 on Dec 8, 2005 - 12 answers

Best external hard drive for backing up & additional storage for a Powerbook G4 with OS X 10.4? [more inside]
posted by cahlers on Nov 30, 2005 - 11 answers

I've overfilled my laptop and want to move files to external drives. But moving keeps getting stopped for various reasons (and what the hell is a cyclic redundancy??) and I'm going nuts. Please send me your speed tips and procedure suggestions! The specifics: Toshiba satellite running windows xp; total c drive size 55.8gb, free space 12.6. External drives: f (in fat 32 which I'd like to reformat to ntfs) has a capacity of 152gb, and has only 66.1 free. Newest drive g (i've just formatted it to ntfs) has a capacity of 111gb, with 103 left after my abortive attempts to put an image disc of c on it. Thanks ... [more inside]
posted by thewhynotgirl on Nov 1, 2005 - 14 answers

My work computer's motherboard crashed and fried itself. My IT guy was able to salvage the hard drive, which is now an external hard drive, but the major program that I need from it has not been running. Could the move into the external hard drive shell have damaged the program? [more inside]
posted by Sara Anne on Aug 30, 2005 - 14 answers

How robust/durable are LaCie firewire drives? [+] [more inside]
posted by psmealey on Feb 7, 2005 - 14 answers