Maxtor Onetouch-Not Sure Why It is Not Being Recognized

jamesrwright

Distinguished
Mar 11, 2007
149
0
18,680
Strange Situation-bought a 500 GB external USB Back in February. I had no problems with it whatsoever. However, all of a sudden, it stopped being accessible on my system. I check the device manager, and it indicates it is ok to use. However, I cannot mount the volume-it is not accessible under my computer either under XP or Vista-I have two systems. Is the hard drive junk? Anything I can do? This is very weird..it seemed to happen all of a sudden..

Update..I got Vista to recognize it but it appears my data has been erased? It is asking me to format everything..this is not making any sense:( All of my stuff was on there..I can't believe it

Jim
 

paq7512

Distinguished
Jul 9, 2006
473
0
18,790
Hum does it see it as RAW. If this is the case I could use a program like GETDATABACK from Runtime.org. Good luck. And then possible just reformat after all the data is backed up.
 

zeek987

Distinguished
Aug 3, 2007
32
0
18,530
jamesrwright, I had a similar problem with a maxtor one touch 300GB drive. One day, about two months of use, the drive contents could not be accessed. It was as though the partition was gone! I thought I had lost everything. I searched around on google and lucky me, I found a solution. However I can't remember what site it was exactly or the small piece of software that I used to fix it.

A quick search found me this, http://blogs.sqlxml.org/bryantlikes/archive/2005/01/12/2317.aspx
I think that was where I learned of the solution (a link towards the bottom in the comments). I found it disturbing to see how many people had the same problem.

In the end, after using the program that I found off that site, I was able to restore the drive's partitions WITHOUT losing any data. And the drive has worked fine ever since.

Just odd these Maxtor one touch drive's are!
 

grisleigh

Distinguished
Jul 20, 2010
2
0
18,510
Ive just had a maxtor one touch "malfunction windows cannot recognise this usb device" moment?? i spent a few minutes looking at forums and one suggestion was to remove the power lead, leave it for a minute and then plug the power back in........ & VOILA its working again
I hope this helps someone...........
 

stabbie

Distinguished
Aug 6, 2010
5
0
18,510


strap on your antivirus software download u torrent go to btjunkie.org search maxtor it will say maxtor 1 touch mini software download torrent then install i will continue seeding this for all but i now have access to my maxtor mini im sure it works for all maxtor external hard drives unfortunately i lost my password so i had to format but im very happy and it now works extreamely well tc have fun :)
 

stabbie

Distinguished
Aug 6, 2010
5
0
18,510
download from a bit torrent like btjunkie.org i did and now my hdd works wonderful i will continue to seed for all make sure u have antivirus protection bit torrents can be iffy and always read comments b4 downloading :)
 
G

Guest

Guest
Obviously this post is way too late, but I thought it would be helpful for others that will experience the same problem that basically makes no sense to me. There is some sort of software glitch going on with the one touch family of hard drives from Maxtor. Here's my quick story...My computer went down and when I bought a new one it would not recognize the maxtor external hard drive. I thought maybe it had something to do with the operating system, so I tried multiple computers that had Windows XP and downloaded the correct software from Seagate and still no luck. I called Seagate and they said it was a corrupt parition table and they can fix for ~$1000 - $2000. Basically, taking it apart in a clean room. I read on other discussion boards that they had the same problem and it needs to see your old system or it won't work, which got me thinking it was software related. I finally engaged a local computer shop and they tried it on multiple computers and one of their clients computers already had maxtor software on it and it mysteriously worked (only on that one computer even though we tried several Windows XP systems that had the correct softward downloaded). The only difference was that one particular client used a maxtor hard drive. Very strange! Thank God I asked them to do this because I was getting ready to spend big money for a clean room recovery, especially since Seagate said it was a physical issue and it was not their software. Seagate is a joke!
 

StarKatz

Distinguished
Sep 30, 2010
1
0
18,510
THIS GAL HAS SOLVED THE PROBLEM WOO HOO

Hi I had a problem with my Maxtor One Touch external harddrive.
When I'd click it a pop up window showed saying in order to use it had to be formatted, being a bit of a computer Geek experimentor I then tried this, worked a treat instantly!!

Right click on the drive and click Properties
Click on the tab Securities
Make sure Allow is ticked in every box for the Creator Owner, System, Administrators (your name-PC\Administrators) and also in Users (your name-PC\Users)
Click Apply
A window will appear and seem to reject your request
just keep clicking ok and then the harddrive will open.

Good luck! :hello:
StarKatz
 
G

Guest

Guest
I had a problem with my Maxtor One Touch III. After a couple of years of good service, suddenly it would not be recognized by the computer. I listened to it and it wasn't spinning - it went click click click.

I looked on the web and several people said try a new power supply. I did that and HOORAY! It worked! Saved a ton of files I didn't want to lose.

Tom
 
G

Guest

Guest
Here is a solution I discovered.

While I encountered this post two years later, I found the information quite useful.
Not only did I use the Maxtor OneTouch III to backup my hard drive, but I too used it to store large Family Home Videos and Music files. After having the drive for two years, the drive would do nothing but "Click". For those wondering if this is the same thing their drive is doing, the "click" occurs every second repeatedly until you turn the power off.

I tried unplugging the device for awhile. I then swapped the USB cable thinking it might have been a bad cable. I tried the various tricks with Device Manager to get the USB drive to be recognized, etc, etc. I tried several computers with varoius operating systems to no avail.

After contacting Maxtor/Seagate support, I discovered they consider this a "Failure" and even if you get them to honor or even extend the warranty, they will only exchange your drive for a new one. Of course, the data and family video files are worth more than a "new" drive so I thought about purchasing a known good drive and swapping out the hard drive to see if I could get it to be recognized. Ultimately, I decided go ahead and purchase a new back-up device, however this time I bought 1.5TB for $90 (Not bad!). I then decided to go ahead and VOID any warranty by cracking the case of the Maxtor OneTouch. The case has two (2) screws on the back (One is under the warranty seal sticker). I then used a small flat head screw driver to help pry the case away from the metal chassis (the side panels have "slider tabs"). I then removed the chassis screws and discovered the Maxtor OneTouch is nothing more than a 500GB Barracuda IDE (80 pin) hard drive. I then took that drive and installed it in my other computer, and it started spinning immediately. PROBLEM SOLVED. And I didn't have to pay someone $1500 to recover my data! No more clicking. While not conclusive, this experience supports other posts claiming the problem is in the Maxtor casing design.

The drive continues to work fine however, I now have my files backed-up in multiple locations. I am not yet ready to allow some offsite/online backup service take all of my personal data. :)

UnchainedSmoker
 
G

Guest

Guest
Thank you. I needed to find a way into the hard drive case. Trying not to do vast damage to the case. Got as far as the 2 screws and decide to stop. I's going to fellow what you did.
Again thank you.
Fifth Horseman
 

bhenderson

Distinguished
Jan 31, 2011
1
0
18,510
I had a problem with my Maxtor One Touch III. After a couple of years of good service, suddenly it would not be recognized by the computer. I listened to it and it wasn't spinning - it went click click click.

I looked on the web and several people said try a new power supply. I did that and HOORAY! It worked! Saved a ton of files I didn't want to lose.

Tom

I worked. good job. my suggestion to all is to check this first. saved me decades of pictures and data
 

fredlave

Distinguished
Feb 6, 2011
1
0
18,510
My 500GB Maxtor One Touch, attached to my iMac, also died after two years or so. My power adapter was O.K. The computer and all repair utilities could not "see" the HD so diagnosis and repair was out of the question. I removed the IDE hard drive (a Seagate Barracuda) from the enclosure, put the drive into another enclosure and, voilà, it worked. I threw the enclosure away and ordered a new one from Meritline. I notice that here are many posts about Maxtor OT failures on the Internet and I would advise users to buy the enclosure and the hard drive separately. It will cost less and, if something happens, it's much easier to remove and check the HD and enclosure separately as well. Good bye, Maxtor and Seagate.
 

ksae105

Distinguished
Feb 19, 2011
1
0
18,510
Fredlave...I think I have the same problem as you described. What enclosure did you buy from Meritline?

Thanks!

 

crsarm

Distinguished
Jul 10, 2011
1
0
18,510
As someone above said to unplug it from the power for a couple of minutes I did this. It was recognized and is working fine now after plugging it back in.

I use this drive on my bench to transfer files so was not worried about the data as I had a copy, just didn't want to lose this great drive. Have had mine for several years now with NO problems, am very pleased with it.
 

mariecookie

Distinguished
Jul 13, 2011
1
0
18,510
hi guys
I am having the same problems and I've tried all the solutions in the thread as well as some others. The hard drive and the external case are visible in device manager, according to windows its the case that's broken. Apparently the actual maxtor hard drive is working.when i check the properties of the case, it says that the device's driver is either corrupted or missing- I've tried updating the driver,uninstalling it,etc. and doing a roll back is not an available option. . I haven't changed my os or anything actually, it suddenly stopped working after going form a windows 7 32 bit- to a windows 7 64 bit pc ( I don't think this is the problem as it has been switched between the respective pc's before) but both the drive and case are quite old.
In disk management the drive is visible but when i try to initialise it , i get a data error ( a cyclic redundancy check) . Does this mean that the actual hard drive is in fact broken and not the case , or not just the case? any feedback will be appreciated :D . I will try to find a pc to plug it into directly without the case.(mine only has one power source cable and its for my main drive. )
thanks
 

Tobamar

Distinguished
Sep 17, 2011
1
0
18,510
Thanks all for the info. I had the same problem with my Maxtor one touch III. Just stopped working. Tried on 3 different computers, wouldn't mount. So I was brave, cracked the case, took out the drive and installed it into one of my desktops. Worked brilliantly, with no data loss!
 

MickG-13

Honorable
Jul 2, 2012
1
0
10,510
Very good answer Starkatz.
Although there can be various reasons for this problem, it is very wise to try possible solutions logically before going down the route that some people have and dismantling the drive, sticking it in the freezer, throwing it out of the window etc etc.
It is important to consider the implications of changing permissions on drives for security reasons but I found that my backups were failing purely because Windows (for unknown reasons) had changed the permissions on my external drive and that prevented the "system" from writing to the drive. This produces the less than helpful "You need to format the drive" message.
Have fun with computers!
MickG
 

harvestmanager

Honorable
Nov 6, 2012
1
0
10,510
I have been backing up photos on a Maxtor One Touch II for a couple of years. It all of a sudden stopped working. I tried plugging it in to other computers. The power came on, but the drive never showed up on Disk Management. Since I have a bunch of One Touch II's, I was able to confirm that the drivers were working on the machines I was using. I could feel the drive vibrate when it was plugged in. I also verified that I was using a 3A converter. Since the drive was way past warrantee, I was not afraid to break the seal. As reported by UnchainedSmoker, the inside is nothing more than a 3.5" PATA drive attached to a sled. It took just a few minutes to attach the drive to an 80 pin connector in a desktop and all my data was right there. Great job UnchainedSmoker for revealing that the inside is just an off-the-shelf hard drive!
 

gwin525

Honorable
Apr 14, 2013
2
0
10,510
I have the same problem as many of your, and that is my Maxtor Onetouch 4 500 GB is not seen (even in device manager) on any of the 4 XP and Win 7 PC I have tried it on. I have done all the standard issue things like new USB cable, check power supply, etc, but it will not be seen. It does sound like it is spinning up, the light bar blinks and the hard drive occasionally makes a click sound, but nothing. I took the drive out of the housing hoping I could do a SATA of IDE hookup directly to the PC, but found the drive does not have an provision for the standard hard drive power cables. It does have a SATA port, but no provision to plug in a power cable. Anyone have this problem or know a solution? Thanks.
 

LACompGuy

Honorable
Jul 24, 2013
1
0
10,510
Here is a solution that may may help someone based on my problem:

My Problem: I loaded data onto the Maxtor On Touch Mini 4 for a few years using a laptop with Windows XP. I established a password to access the Maxtor to protect the data. I sold that laptop and purchased a new one with Windows XP and a year later I wanted to get data off the Maxtor.

The Maxtor was correctly recognized by Device Manager on the new laptop and had the correct driver allocated. BUT, it was not visible in My Computer and had no drive letter assigned so I could not access the Maxtor no matter what I tried to do.

Solution: If you password protect you data on Maxtor--to get to that data on another computer you must do the 200MB download and install a fresh copy of the Maxtor Manager on your new computer. After I did that, restarted, and initiated the program--it brought up a dialog box to enter the password and I was able to use the drive.

Because the drive operating files are not contained in a separate unprotected file on the drive, when you password protect Maxtor--you in effect disable the drive utilities. It's great security, but poor utility.
 

insnt9

Honorable
Nov 9, 2013
1
0
10,510




this thing works......finally

 

Val26

Reputable
Apr 9, 2014
1
0
4,510
I took my external hard drive apart and plugged it into an old computer that took the PATA cable. Surprisingly it started right up and I transferred all the data into a new external hard drive.