Extra HD is Dead

A

arncap

New Member
A couple of years ago I bought a Buffalo 250GB HD for to be used for backup / storage. When powered on, a red light and a green light are suppose to turn on. The green light is suppose to show that it is active.

For several months I have been unable to get the green light to come on. My PC will not recognize the HD at all. In other words, I can't use it at all.

I bought another 1000GB HD recently to go with an older 160GB HD I had previously. Both of them work fine. So, I was wondering how I could get my 250 activated. Any suggestions?
 
It's very common for hard drives die. In the case of an external unit, it could be something with the enclosure or it could be the drive itself.

What kind of drive is it? Is it a large 3.5" drive (requiring external power) or a smaller 2.5" drive (powered over USB). Can you tell if the drive spins up when plugged in? Have you tested it on other computers?
 
It's a large size requiring external power. It doesn't "spin up" when plugged in. I have tried it on both of my laptops with the same results.
 
OK, so we can pretty much eliminate your computer. Do you have a desktop available? Being a larger one, it should be a standard 3.5" drive inside using desktop-style IDE connections (or probably new enough for SATA). I'd try popping it into a computer and seeing if you can get anything more from it. Perhaps something has gone wrong with the enclosure or the power supply...
 
Still not sure what you mean. First, I don't have access to a desktop. Second, this is a pretty large and heavy external HD. It's about 16cm x 16cm and about 5cm thick. It probably weighs over 1kg. So, I'm not sure what you mean.
 
arncap said:
Still not sure what you mean. First, I don't have access to a desktop. Second, this is a pretty large and heavy external HD. It's about 16cm x 16cm and about 5cm thick. It probably weighs over 1kg. So, I'm not sure what you mean.
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All a external drive is a normal HDD that is inside of your current computer with a power supply a IDE/SATA connector and a USB plug.

What he is saying I believe is to take out that HDD and plug it into your computer to see if the power supply in the external unit is dead or if the HDD is dead itself.
 
As I previously stated, the HD I'm talking about is completely external and not inside my PC. So, is it possible to do what you're saying? It is a large external HD that is about 17x17cm and about 5-6cm thick.
 
No it's not impossible. You can take the hdd out of the External Enclosure and hook it strait up to a desktop pc. That way you can determine if it is the hdd enclosure or the hdd itself.
 
Trust us, there are really only two main kinds of hard drives you'd come in contact with today... a 3.5" (standard desktop drive) or a 2.5" (standard laptop drive). All others are few and far between; and really nothing larger than a 3.5" is found today, only smaller.

If you don't have a desktop, you could always purchase another enclosure and transfer the drive. They aren't all that expensive...though I am leaning more towards the drive being bad over the enclosure.
 
The_Other_One said:
If you don't have a desktop, you could always purchase another enclosure and transfer the drive. They aren't all that expensive...though I am leaning more towards the drive being bad over the enclosure.
Click to expand...

Me to but, it could be a simple thing such as the power switch or power adapter. Really the only way to tell is to buy another enclosure, hook it up to a desktop, or buy a sata/ide usb cable and power adapter.

Adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812816014
 
While those adapters are neat (used mine just today :P) I'd suggest getting a cheap enclosure if there's any chance the drive would continue to be used... I don't know, but I don't think arncap would be doing a lot of hard drive testing with other drives ;)
 
The_Other_One said:
While those adapters are neat (used mine just today :P) I'd suggest getting a cheap enclosure if there's any chance the drive would continue to be used... I don't know, but I don't think arncap would be doing a lot of hard drive testing with other drives ;)
Click to expand...

Your right prob not but, enclosures tend to be a little more expensive

To OP: If you are looking at getting a new enclosure, look at getting one that can support 2.5 & 3.5" drives as we have no clue what size yours is.
 
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