[vistasucks]

hi all, hope this is the right place...

i have an old hard drive which i have in a caddy and use for storage, this now seems to have conked out and i cant access it.

my question is, is there a way to retrieve the info on it or have i lost the lot....its only pictures but i dont want to lose them.

any help is appreciated as always

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Hey Vistasucks,

 

What exactly happens when you power it on? Do you hear clicking noises? Do you hear the drive spinning up? If not, place your hand on top of the drive and see if you can feel it spinning.

 

Does Windows detect the drive at all when it is powered-on?

[Facedown98]

Hey Vistasucks,

 

What exactly happens when you power it on? Do you hear clicking noises? Do you hear the drive spinning up? If not, place your hand on top of the drive and see if you can feel it spinning.

 

Does Windows detect the drive at all when it is powered-on?

[vistasucks]

Hey Vistasucks,

 

What exactly happens when you power it on? Do you hear clicking noises? Do you hear the drive spinning up? If not, place your hand on top of the drive and see if you can feel it spinning.

 

Does Windows detect the drive at all when it is powered-on?

hi mate, thanks for the timely reply

windows says the device is not recognised..the unit does fire up and makes noises and theres  little light on it that should be green but is now red

[Facedown98]

Have you tried turning it off and re-seating the cables connected to the drive? Are the noises normal? Also try rebooting your computer and plugging the USB cable into another USB port.

[vistasucks]

tried it on 2 computers, changed ports, swore at it a few times..

it doesnt seem to making any odd noises...neither machine recognises its actually plugged in   

[terry1966]

if your lucky it may just be the caddy that has failed, what i'd try is to take the drive out of the caddy and connect it internally in one of your pc's and see if it is then able to be accessed.

 

[Facedown98]

if your lucky it may just be the caddy that has failed, what i'd try is to take the drive out of the caddy and connect it internally in one of your pc's and see if it is then able to be accessed.

 

 

Not a bad idea. If you have another drive you can connect with the external enclosure, that would also isolate the issue to the drive.

 

Do you have any anti-static bags handy?

[iammykyl]

 

 

 If you have another drive you can connect with the external enclosure, that would also isolate the issue to the drive.

Do not try that.   If the Caddy is faulty and has killed the first drive, it may do the same again with another drive.

[Facedown98]

You have no facts to back that up. For all we know, the USB cable could be defective and the issue will resolve once replaced. 

 

If you are comfortable installing the drive internally, then you are welcome to try that.

[iammykyl]

Sorry Racedown98

I read you post as trying another drive in the caddy, not trying another cable to the caddy. 

[Facedown98]

Vistasucks, can you please clarify whether you installed the drive into an external enclosure, or if the drive was purchased with its own enclosure? Some external hard disks come with their own proprietary enclosure, and I'm not certain how easy it will be to remove. If the drive was formally installed inside of an old computer and you purchased an enclosure on your own, then you should be able to remove/add drives as you please.

 

iammykyl, you understood my original post correctly. If I were in the user's shoes, I would remove the drive from the enclosure and install another drive. I think the chances of the enclosure being defective (and destructive) are unlikely compared to the risk of general hard disk failure. I also feel that the user is more likely to inadvertently cause further damage by opening the case to swap drives. I welcome your viewpoint but please PM me if you would like to discuss the troubleshooting method further.

[vistasucks]

the hard drive was originally in an advent pc...it is a seagate barracuda 7200.7 ultra ATA and is fitting into a caddy i bought off ebay and i dont have any other machines to try the drive in ( newer machines dont use ATA do they ?)

thanks for the help guys

[Facedown98]

Most new systems will use SATA, so you are correct. Unfortunately it's hard to say whether the fault is with the drive or drive enclosure.

 

I'm curious to know what the Device Manager claims is wrong with the device. I'm not sure which operating system you use so I'll try to keep my instructions generic...

1. Click on Start and then click on Run. If you do not see the option, press and hold the Windows key and press the r key.
2. Type mmc devmgmt,msc into the Run box and press Enter.
3. The Device Manager will appear. Locate the device with a Yellow Exclaimation point and double click on it.
4. The status will appear. Please copy and paste here.

[terry1966]

 

( newer machines dont use ATA do they ?)

no but you may still find one on the motherboard anyway, so i'd open the case and take a look, you may be lucky and find one on at least one of your pc's.

 

[vistasucks]

hope this is ok..cant do copy and paste...new laptop, dont know how it works ..yet 

and it makes the mouse pad go funny 

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Edited by vistasucks, 31 December 2014 - 06:33 AM.