External hard drive will only work with original USB mini cable

[Tadry01]

I plugged my seagate hard drive into my computer with the original cable and it came up but wouldn't let me go into it or even format it. I played with the cable cleaned it at both ends and where it plugged in and then plugged it back in and it worked for about a minute then it started giving me error messages. I unplugged it and plugged it in again and it went back to not letting me access it. I tried a brand new cable and it didn't even show up on my system. So I plugged the old cable back in and held it at a certain angle and there it was again giving me full access. My question is why does it only work with that cable and what would be different from that cable to the 4 other ones I tried?
I should mention that no matter what cable I plug in the light still turns on but the hard drive itself doesn't seem to start unless I use the original cable at the right angle.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Tadry01,

Do these cable have the same connector and length?
You've backed up your data when the drive was still accessible right?

External drives should work with other cables as well, as long as they have the same connectors and are short enough. (sometimes longer USB cables would not power up external drive).

What is the error message that you get?

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Tadry01]

Hi there Tadry01,

Do these cable have the same connector and length?
You've backed up your data when the drive was still accessible right?

External drives should work with other cables as well, as long as they have the same connectors and are short enough. (sometimes longer USB cables would not power up external drive).

What is the error message that you get?

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

It says this folder is invalid and then just sits there going extremely slow until I go back to my computer then it won't let me see what's on the drive again. The cables are all mini USB 30v one is the same size two are shorter and the new one is longer. I am slowly backing up the drive as it is 1tb and is 90% full but as I have to hold it the whole time I can only do it about an hour at a time so it's taking a ridiculous amount of time and if I move slightly it disconnects.