External hard drive problem

[Jimmy P]

Hey guys, I have a 250GB Seagate external hard drive, it's about 18-24 months old. It was working fine and life was good, but one day it stopped connecting to the computer. It was working the day before, no problems. I've tried three different USB cables, and I've tried it on two computers. It powers up, the LED works, no physical trauma, everything seems fine, but it doesn't connect. I'm pretty stumped here, I'd appreciate any tips or advice. I can provide more info if needed. Thanks!

Jimmy

 

[bc4]

Take it out of the case, set the jumpers correctly and try inside the case

I'd back up as much as I could if you get it to work THEN run checkdisk ... could be a faulty MBR

 

[Jimmy P]

Allright, thanks. I haven't tried this step yet partly because there's no easy way to open it (looks like I'll have to force it open) and I actually find it in under disk drives in device manager.

So surely there's something I can try before resorting to busting it open?

 

[technology-sponge]

It could be 2 problems -

1)The hard disk is busted and data recovery is you only option. Or if you use the drive for backups only, and you have a master copy, send it to Seagate for an RMA.

2)Corrupted MBR - Plug the disk into windows. Check in disk management and see if it recognizes the device. If it does, it means the hard disk is corrupted. You may be able to run software programs to recover data. Once that is done, uses disk management to initialize and format the disk and it should be good to use again.

If disk management does not recognize a disk, then look in device manager, and see if anything turns up there (unknown device/storage/controllers). If the disk does show up, its most likely physically fine. Contact Seagate support and see if they have any utilities that can reconnect to the drive and format it. If it doesn't show up, its most likely a faulty controller/dead disk.