[Rice]

My Western Digital External Dual-Option Media Center 160 GB isn't being recognized by any computer I plug it into. It's NTFS formatted and is just extra storage space for like files and such. It was working fine untell recently when my brother plugged it into one of the older computers then it just wouldn't get recognized when i plug it back into the main comp. It doesnt work on the older comp either. It doesnt show up in the device manager or anywhere on the comp. I've tried searching and everything. It doesnt make any new sounds it sounds the same as when i got it brand new. Can anyone help me? I'm a noob to computer things and I dont want to lose all my data from the hard drive.

Edited by Rice, 02 January 2006 - 07:10 PM.

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Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. Can you tell if the external hd is powered up? Is there a power indicator light and/or do you hear any fans running (if it has any fan, some external hd's don't)? The sequence to follow is to have you computer booted up, then connect the usb cable from the external hd to your computer, then power up the external hd. This should be plug and play on wxp or w2k since you said the hd is already formatted NTFS. It should be detected. If not, go start, my computer right click manage, and go to storage, disk management. See if the drive is found there.

[austin_o]

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. Can you tell if the external hd is powered up? Is there a power indicator light and/or do you hear any fans running (if it has any fan, some external hd's don't)? The sequence to follow is to have you computer booted up, then connect the usb cable from the external hd to your computer, then power up the external hd. This should be plug and play on wxp or w2k since you said the hd is already formatted NTFS. It should be detected. If not, go start, my computer right click manage, and go to storage, disk management. See if the drive is found there.

[Rice]

Yea it is powered up, you can see a blue light around the power button like it always is. I've already done everything you've said before, but it doesnt show up anywhere. I've checked disk management and everywhere I can think of and it doesn't show up. I've checked if there were any hardwares that weren't connected properly, but disk management didnt show anything of the sort, so I'm not sure what's up.

Edited by Rice, 03 January 2006 - 03:35 PM.

[Kemasa]

You may have a problem with the external case controller. Your data should be fine, but you may have to take the disk out and put it in another case or directly in the computer.

How is this unit attached? You might want to try another cable, just to make sure that it did not get damaged. This may not be the problem, but it is a simple thing which is often overlooked and is easy to test.

[Rice]

I'm using usb but i don't think the usb cable is damaged because there are 2 card drives on the external that are being detected and the hard drive part of it is the only part not being detected. And I'm not sure how to open the casing and put it directly into the computer.

[Kemasa]

It may not be the cable, but it might be easier to rule it out than to open the case. If other devices in the unit are working, then that would tend to suggest that the cable is ok.

I am not familar with that case, so I can not say how to open it. Some are difficult to open, some are easy only when you know the trick.

I am not sure of what to suggest other than taking the disk out to ensure that the disk is working. Did you look under disk management to see if it sees anything?

Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. In there go
to Disk Management.

[austin_o]

I suspect this is an "off the shelf" unit that Western Digital didn't design or intend to be opened by the user. How old is it? Perhaps it is still under warranty with Western Digital? Moving the exteranl drive to another computer and plugging it in should not have cause this. Something died, question is whether it is the hd or the controller chip inside of the case. My suggestion at this point is to contact Western Digital via their web page at http://support.wdc.c...ranty/index.asp. If it is under warranty they should replace it for you. They may be able to give some guidance as to how to fix it or maybe how to recover your data.

This is one bad thing about the off the shelf units, as opposed to those where you get a case, and put in the hd of your choice. I have 4 such devices that I put together myself. I have been able to use them on multiple computers, 2 with WXP Pro and 2 with W2K Pro without any problem. If something does go wrong, I can open the case and swap out components. You could attempt to do that on your Western Digital, especially if it is not under warranty. You would at least have the opportunity to put the drive inside your computer as a slave and recover your data.