[SOLVED] HardDrive unknown and not initialised

[harddrivehelpplease938]

Hello, So a couple of months ago I bought an external Hard drive and transferred a lot of important files on to it, all of a sudden it doesn't show up, when plugged in it makes a sound but doesnt show on my PC - when i check device management it says unknown and not initialised. Does anybody know how to fix this? - I dont want to risk losing the data

 

[harddrivehelpplease938]

So then it's still under warranty. If the drive IS dead, simply put it back together and contact Seagate regarding an RMA IF you have access to the original purchase documentation or receipt. Or if you registered the product with them after purchase.

One key thing to note too, is there was a light to indicate when it's on, when i've taken it apart nothing seemed damaged but the light does not turn on when plugged in

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, as always with these kinds of external drives, it's also possible that the problem is with the electronics of the enclosure itself somewhere, and perhaps the drive itself is fine. I agree with fzabkar that it's likely the drive but it's always good to rule out everything that isn't wrong before we convict anything.

 

[harddrivehelpplease938]

You have that data backed up elsewhere in addition to on the hard drive, right? If not, that's a mistake and a big problem. You should always, ALWAYS have any important data backed up to more than one location, like flash drive, optical disks (CD, DVD, BD), another internal or external drive, your primary drive, cloud storage, etc., because it's NEVER a question of whether a drive will fail or not, it's only EVER a question of WHEN. New drives fail all the time and some old drives keep on chugging even after years and years. You can't trust important data to be in only one location without expecting that something like this might happen, because, it always does.

Does the drive show up in the BIOS or in disk management?

https://www.lifewire.com/disk-management-2625863

Have you tried a different USB port and/or USB cable?

What are your full hardware specs?

Without trying a new cable it's not possible to definitively eliminate that as the point of failure. However, if your hard drive is making sounds it's never made before in conjunction with your system not recognizing it, that strongly indicates a drive failure.

Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

It means that the JMicron bridge IC cannot find a Seagate hard drive. This means that the hard drive is probably dead. If you don't mind voiding your warranty, remove the HDD from the enclosure and connect it to a SATA port inside your computer. In fact, this procedure shouldn't void your warranty, at least not in the USA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson–Moss_Warranty_Act

So then it's still under warranty. If the drive IS dead, simply put it back together and contact Seagate regarding an RMA IF you have access to the original purchase documentation or receipt. Or if you registered the product with them after purchase.

Thanks everyone - I removed the outer casing and took out the SATA to USB, plugged it into my computer internally and everything is working, I have all of my data back!

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks everyone - I removed the outer casing and took out the SATA to USB, plugged it into my computer internally and everything is working, I have all of my data back!

So, you had this scare of potentially lost data.

Now what will you do?

 

[harddrivehelpplease938]

So, you had this scare of potentially lost data.

Now what will you do?

Definitely going to have it stored in multiple places, this is not going to happen again, that's for sure!

 

[USAFRet]

Definitely going to have it stored in multiple places, this is not going to happen again, that's for sure!

Automated backup routine, and know how to recover.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Even if not "automated", at the LEAST, once a week, backed up to a secondary location so that WHEN something happens, worst case you only lose a few days worth of data since the last time you backed up. Best case, automatically OR manually every time you save something important that you would get sad about losing.

And yes, for most people that should probably also include a routine for backing up the operating system and it's files as well. I only back up the OS once a week and I only keep two copies of the OS backups. One copy that's recent and another that is from the week prior, in case I find there is some problem that happened during the week that I didn't know about and my most recent copy is compromised, that way I have the one from the week before that WASN'T compromised.