Is my external drive failing or is it just a faulty cable?

[geekyd00d]

So I bought a 1TB external drive about a year ago to put my steam games on and photos too. A few months back windows gave me messages saying it didn't recognise my device and/or saying the drive needed formatting. I've formatted it several times and it works, and holds data, but every now and then that message pops back up. Even when it does, if I plug out and back in again, it works, and no files are corrupted. I've checked the drive with a S.M.A.R.T. tool as well as chkdsk, and both said it was fine. The final piece of evidence is that it seems to happen if I poke the USB cable.

So: Is my drive dying or do I just need a new cable?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Well obviously you should have tried a new USB cable first before posting for help, then you can say that you've already tried a new cable.

Always try the simple & obvious things first before asking for help. Then post and tell us what you tried that didn't work. That saves a lot of "to and fro" posting.