[The1_Knightmare]

My external hard drive has stopped working all of a sudden.
It is a Seagate ST9160827AS.

When I plug in my hard drive, my computer attempts to find the hard drive, and then around 30 seconds later, my explorer.exe crashes. Funny thing is, when I unplug it, explorer.exe uncrashes itself.

I have a huge collection of files that I hope not to lose (not necessarily important, just I dont want to lose it) so I hope to fix this problem and if I cannot fix it, I will send it to a shop to fix, but if it's possible to fix it myself with your help, of course I would attempt that first.

Thank you.

[Advertisements]

In my signature is a link to hard drive diagnostics.
Get the one for seagate, put the iso on a cd and boot from it and test the hard drive.

An iso image needs to be burned and not copied. Use Burncdcc (from my signature). This will only burn iso file.
The computer needs to boot from the CD. If the computer is not set to boot from CD, you need to enter the bios (usually del or esc).
While the computer is off, you will need to plug in the external drive. Hopefully the diagnostics will see it.

Download the CD iso image under SeaTools for DOS v2.13b (Graphical).

You may have to remove the drive from the case and slave it into another desktop computer. The case could be the problem and not the hard drive.

[123Runner]

In my signature is a link to hard drive diagnostics.
Get the one for seagate, put the iso on a cd and boot from it and test the hard drive.

An iso image needs to be burned and not copied. Use Burncdcc (from my signature). This will only burn iso file.
The computer needs to boot from the CD. If the computer is not set to boot from CD, you need to enter the bios (usually del or esc).
While the computer is off, you will need to plug in the external drive. Hopefully the diagnostics will see it.

Download the CD iso image under SeaTools for DOS v2.13b (Graphical).

You may have to remove the drive from the case and slave it into another desktop computer. The case could be the problem and not the hard drive.

[The1_Knightmare]

Thanks. Right now I am in dorm and have no empty discs to burn the iso into.

I got a question though, I only have DVDs in my house, can I substitute a CD with a DVD (got both DVD-R and DVD+R) or must the disc be CD?

And is there a way to figure out if the case is the problem? I don't have a desktop computer to check.

[123Runner]

I am not sure about using a DVD. The instructions are written for CD. It would be worth a shot. The image is bootable, so i would not think it would matter.

The only way to check the case is either slave it to a desktop or put it in another known good case.

[The1_Knightmare]

Ahhh... I guess i'll try borrowing a friend's case and see if it's my hard drive or case.

Ok, I'll try on Friday when I have access to burnable DVDs.

[The1_Knightmare]

I am really confused in how I'm suppose to use the diag.

I assume I'm suppose to scan the hard drive right with the short test/long test?
Problem is I only see a Hamachi hard drive, which is my internal hard drive. My external hard drive doesnt seem to be on the list.

[The1_Knightmare]

Bump cause it dropped to the third page.