Need help external hard drive.

B

Billybobby

New Member
Help plz!

My external hard drive is not recognised. It was working before I restarted my computer. Really weird.

Symptoms :

On the main page, "this PC", I see Local Disk C: along with a bar noting the space left and volume ( 100.3 GB free of 465 GB ), same with my drive D:, yet all I get is Local Disk F:, no more info on that one. I cannot access anything in it. I double clic and my computer endlessly tries to access it.

Windows 8.1 here by the way.

I tried uninstalling the driver, restarting the computer, connect the drive again, didn't work. Same crap. The device manager windows indicates that my hitachi external hard drive is working properly. No yellow exclamation mark. Administrative tools ---> computer management window, then clicking on disk management gives nothing. It simply doesn't load up when my external hard drive is plugged in. It does load up when it's not though. I have important data on that damnable drive. Help me please!!

Also I plugged it in all my other USB slots, it's not the usb slot.
 
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Try a different computer to make sure its not the computer that can't recognize the drive. It's possible the drive has failed. What model of external drive do you have?
 
The label on it states "SimpleDrive Mini by Hitachi" 500 GB sdm/500CF - C, 96201 - 00500 - 302. The device manager names it "Hitachi HTS545050B9A300 USB Device".

I had recently deleted and transferred a lot of data on it. My computer crashed once. I rebooted, my external drive wouldn't detect. I disconnected it, reconnected it in the USB, it was detected. Then I restarted my computer 20 mins later and boom, not detected anymore. When I connect it, the lights beneath it goes in a kind of loop ; a few slow flashes, a bunch of flashes, and it cycles like that. When I take it in my hand I can feel something vibrate it in at equally intermittent cycles. No nearby computer to try on for now. Will do that tomorrow.

Thank you for answering.
 
I'm guessing its your computer since it crashed and now its having issues. As I said before, try attaching it to another computer and see what happens. It's possible that windows is now corrupted and you just need a fresh install or possibly just doing a system restore back to a day before it crashed may help.
 
Billybobby said:
When I connect it, the lights beneath it goes in a kind of loop ; a few slow flashes, a bunch of flashes, and it cycles like that. When I take it in my hand I can feel something vibrate it in at equally intermittent cycles.
Click to expand...
This sounds like either the drive is borked, or it's not getting enough power - sometimes an iffy USB port does this. Is it a USB2 or USB3 drive, and are the ports USB2 or 3? For USB2, you'll most likely need a split cable with an auxiliary power connector, connected directly to the machine (not to a hub or with an extension cable). It's really weird if it didn't work with any of your ports, though.

As a last resort, you might be able to open the casing, pull out the HD and plug it directly into your machine (if you have a desktop or a laptop with a spare slot, that is). Most external drives are just laptop drives in an enclosure so this should work if the drive isn't nuked, but no guarantees you'll be able to put the enclosure back together - some just aren't made for that.
 
Yea, I'd just try connecting the external drive to a different usb port before coming to any conclusions.
 
Burned. Doesn't work on other comps. Weird thing that, I kept getting black screens once in a while, "your display driver has stopped working", but ever since my external hard drive is disconnected, it doesn't happen anymore. Seems my power supply is having a hard time dispensing said power, or maybe the plug in the wall is having trouble. My power supply is freaking 1 000 Watts and my comp with everything is supposed to suck about 700 only.
 
What are you system specs including what video card and what exact model of power supply do you have?
 
Bah, making me open my computer to answer that. It's an 8 years old computer. 1000 W Corsair power supply, a mother board ASUS P5NT Deluxe, 1 graphic card GTX 460 Nvidia, 2 hard drives, 1 dvd writer, real basic stuff. I took a 1000 W supply because I originally intended to get two graphic cards in SLI but never did so.
 
According to that site, most use 2x6-pin. I have a reference card at home that only uses 1x6-pin, which would mean that it couldn't use more than 150W, most likely less.
I too also like a good margin for PSUs (most effective at at 50-80% load), so I'm using a 430W (CX430M) for it. It's coupled with a 125W TDP (Phenom II X6 1050T, probably 80-100W at full load).
 
Opened it up to find a small hard drive with an extra card to convert it to USB. Removed said card and plugged it in my computer. Same thing. Doesn't work. My windows endlessly loads as it endlessly tries to fully recognize the drive.
 
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