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July 19, 2010 4:34 AM Subscribe
All of a sudden, my laptop has stopped recognizing my external hard drive. Any suggestions?
I have a Macbook running Leopard and a 500gb WD External Hard Drive.
Last night, I properly ejected the drive after I was done using it. I clearly remember waiting until the icon disappeared from the finder window. I then unplugged the USB. I remember the HD blinking three or four times and then turned itself off as usual.
This morning, when I plugged in the HD, the computer gave me an error message and said that the drive had not been properly ejected. I clicked ok, then it gave me the error message again. Since then, after multiple restarts and re-plug ins, the computer has not recognized the HD.
Is it toast? Or is there something I can do? If there's nothing I can do to fix this particular drive, is there anyway to get the data off and onto another drive?
I have a Macbook running Leopard and a 500gb WD External Hard Drive.
Last night, I properly ejected the drive after I was done using it. I clearly remember waiting until the icon disappeared from the finder window. I then unplugged the USB. I remember the HD blinking three or four times and then turned itself off as usual.
This morning, when I plugged in the HD, the computer gave me an error message and said that the drive had not been properly ejected. I clicked ok, then it gave me the error message again. Since then, after multiple restarts and re-plug ins, the computer has not recognized the HD.
Is it toast? Or is there something I can do? If there's nothing I can do to fix this particular drive, is there anyway to get the data off and onto another drive?
You can also run the USB Prober and see if it sees the drive when plugged in.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:44 AM on July 19, 2010
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:44 AM on July 19, 2010
Best answer: Before doing anything else, do as DreamerFi suggests and open Disk Utility to see if the drive shows up.
Unrelated to the "not properly ejected", but if you have a friend with the same model, try using their power cord. I have some larger USB drives that are pretty finicky about power and have had the power adapters fail on me several times over the past couple of years.
If the problem is with the USB enclosure, you have very high chances of getting the data off. Buy another usb enclosure (an empty one) and physically move your disk over. Almost all that you buy today are SATA though you'll want to check the specs. I looked at the spec pages for that drive and it didn't give the details on the drive that's inside. You can also get USB/IDE/SATA adapters (they're from $15 to $25 - mine was made by newertech) so you could pick one of those up to test the drive with before buying anything else if you wanted.
posted by devbrain at 5:38 AM on July 19, 2010
Unrelated to the "not properly ejected", but if you have a friend with the same model, try using their power cord. I have some larger USB drives that are pretty finicky about power and have had the power adapters fail on me several times over the past couple of years.
If the problem is with the USB enclosure, you have very high chances of getting the data off. Buy another usb enclosure (an empty one) and physically move your disk over. Almost all that you buy today are SATA though you'll want to check the specs. I looked at the spec pages for that drive and it didn't give the details on the drive that's inside. You can also get USB/IDE/SATA adapters (they're from $15 to $25 - mine was made by newertech) so you could pick one of those up to test the drive with before buying anything else if you wanted.
posted by devbrain at 5:38 AM on July 19, 2010
DiskWarrior fixed the problem when this exact thing happened to me. No lost data, and the drive was perfectly fine and remains usable (after a few hours of scanning!).
posted by bcwinters at 6:44 AM on July 19, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by bcwinters at 6:44 AM on July 19, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, guys. I'm at work but will try all this when I get home.
Can anyone tell me what to do after I run Disk Utility? I've only had my Macbook for a few months and I'm not too familiar with the various utilities.
bcwinters, thanks for the Diskwarrior suggestion. Hopefully it won't have to come to that.
posted by soonertbone at 10:47 AM on July 19, 2010
Can anyone tell me what to do after I run Disk Utility? I've only had my Macbook for a few months and I'm not too familiar with the various utilities.
bcwinters, thanks for the Diskwarrior suggestion. Hopefully it won't have to come to that.
posted by soonertbone at 10:47 AM on July 19, 2010
Response by poster: If anybody is still reading this, I ran Disk Utility and found nothing.
I hooked up the hard drive to an old Dell laptop I have lying around, and it wasn't recognized there either. It didn't show up in Device Manager either.
When I plug in the hard drive, it appears to recognize that it's connected and powers on. It sounds normal (i.e., no audible clicking or other strange noises.) It's just not being recognized by the computer. Any ideas before I plunk down a hundred bucks for Diskwarrior?
posted by soonertbone at 7:30 PM on July 19, 2010
I hooked up the hard drive to an old Dell laptop I have lying around, and it wasn't recognized there either. It didn't show up in Device Manager either.
When I plug in the hard drive, it appears to recognize that it's connected and powers on. It sounds normal (i.e., no audible clicking or other strange noises.) It's just not being recognized by the computer. Any ideas before I plunk down a hundred bucks for Diskwarrior?
posted by soonertbone at 7:30 PM on July 19, 2010
First, wait try replugging it about a minute after first plugging it in and see if it's recognized.
If that fails--
join Apple Developer connection (for free) at http://developer.apple.com/
Download and install Xcode Developer Tools.
Run USB Prober (in /Developer/Applications/Utilities) and see if your system sees the drive at all.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:04 PM on July 19, 2010
If that fails--
join Apple Developer connection (for free) at http://developer.apple.com/
Download and install Xcode Developer Tools.
Run USB Prober (in /Developer/Applications/Utilities) and see if your system sees the drive at all.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:04 PM on July 19, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by DreamerFi at 4:38 AM on July 19, 2010