Maxtor Personal storage 3200 suddenly not recognized

[suspect0]

Hello,

So I installed my Maxtor PS 3200 external drive this afternoon without any problem--you basically just plug in the USB and XP recognizes instantly. I copied about 7 GB worth of data (I'm backing up in advance of a drive reformat). I then stopped backing up for awhile to attend to other stuff then had to restart the computer for a different reason.

Upon restarting, the PS3200 is now no longer visible anywhere--I went to add hardware, I've plugged and replugged everything, it's just not there. The light on the drive is on so I think the hardware is fine, but...I have no idea how this could have happened.

Does anyone have any clues??

Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[RichPLS]

Power down, make sure all is re-connected properly, and reboot and see if it works.

 

[suspect0]

Yeah, tried that. Sadly no change.

 

[Jameel]

I have the same problem, my Maxtor 3200 External HD is not working and there is no power at all when I pluged it to the power supply. thanks

 

[aford10]

check the device manager for any conflicts (yellow !)

 

[WRXGuy02]

Worked on a clients PC with the same issue. Here's the fix!

The problem with all those folks who's drive will not spin-up or the drive is no longer seen by windows, is that your AC power supply has gone bad!! It's not supplying enough power to do anything but turn that silly little green light on...
I had a 2nd external drive with the same power adapter, plugged it in and the "supposed" dead drive spun right up & was recognized by XP!!
Now just need to find a replacement AC adapter...

 

[aford10]

You can uninstall the usb root hubs in the device manager, forcing the PC to reinstall the usb ports and check for new hardware.

 

[sassburks]

After reading about the power source I swapped out the power plug with my modem's and sure enough I heard it start spinning. Oh so thankful..was very frustrated. I recently set up a new computer and maybe I swapped the power cords then. Thanks for the tip.

 

[bladerun60]

Like always, these forum resolve my problem. Just plug it to an individual ac power. Thanks again.

Como siempre, chequear este foro resolvió mi problema. Asegurense de conectar el disco a un toma individual. Para mi, funcionó automáticamente. Gracias.

 

[jjones21]

I'm so grateful for your post. My green light was working but neither computer would recognize the drive. Got a new power cord and all is wonderful with life again. My iTunes backup and pictures are all accessible again. You are brilliant!

You saved me from paying out big bucks to purchase new external drive and have Geek Squad transfer files to new hard drive. Most important was the bit about the power cord supplying enough power for the little green light but not to spin the drive. I've a happy girl!!

 

[wendyali]

Hi there -

I am having the same problem. Where can I get a replacement AC adapter? Do I need to contact the company and have them supply me with a new one. Or is it more hassle than it is worth? How much are they?

Thanks for your help - I was starting to get worried

Worked on a clients PC with the same issue. Here's the fix!

The problem with all those folks who's drive will not spin-up or the drive is no longer seen by windows, is that your AC power supply has gone bad!! It's not supplying enough power to do anything but turn that silly little green light on...
I had a 2nd external drive with the same power adapter, plugged it in and the "supposed" dead drive spun right up & was recognized by XP!!
Now just need to find a replacement AC adapter...

 

[aford10]

Contact your manufacturer or go to their website. They should sell the accessories.

 

[Guest]

Steve,

Mine is doing the exact same thing now! I have tried everything, and to no avail, my PC is not recognizing the drive. I can "hear" it when I plug it in, but nothing shows up. I do not have a lot of data on it, and that's what surprises me. What's going on?

 

[aford10]

Check disk management to see if it shows up there. Or try uninstalling the USB root hubs in the device manager, then restart.

 

[Guest]

I went to best buy, where I bought the hard drive, and they let me use their power cord and immediately the device started spinning its hard drive! Thanks for this tip!!!!!!!

 

[Guest]

I went to Radio Shack and bought a new power cord, and my external is working again!! Whew...I really thought I had lost all my data! Thanks to everyone that suggested this!

 

[geoff0829]

I have a Maxtor 3200 external hard drive that wasn't being recognized in My Computer and Device Mgr. As a result of reading this blog, I went to Radio Shack and bought a new power supply for $10, which solved the problem!! Thanks so much!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your post!! I had the same Maxtor 3200 problem. I replaced my power supply from Walmart for $20. I tried at Radio Shack but it would have cost me $40! There is no such $10 AC adaptor at Radio Shack in California!! Thanks again!!

 

[Ibbysan]

My thanks to "WRXGuy02", and his input about the power supply. I had gone through all the troubleshooting effort suggested by Device Manager, along with some digging on my own, and was convinced my HD probably was damaged from being knocked off a shelf by my lovely cats. I figured it was a lost cause, since when powered on I also heard a very faint "ticking" sound. I had even taken the unit apart just to see what the "guts" looked like!
Just for the heck of it I tried a final Google on the HD, and came across this site. When I read the comment about the PS I dug up an old power supply I had from an old Thinkpad. It seemed to be similar in design, so I tried it. BINGO!!! The HD came back to life, was recognized by my Thinkpad and the drive actually still worked and had all my files! I was stunned, and wished I had found this site yesterday!
Cheers!

 

[Steve56]

I was thrilled to find this site. I spent hours over the weekend trying to solve the same problem. I'm heading home right now to swap out the power supply. I update everyone if it works. That was the one thing I didnt try........Steve from Annapolis, MD

 

[Ibbysan]

Just make sure you use a power supply with the same specs! I tried one from an old Thinkpad, which worked initially. But, I left it plugged in overnight, and the following day the HD again was not working. I suspect I either burned out the power supply or the HD by leaving it plugged into a power supply not having the same specs. Live and learn. And, fyi... I contacted Seagate about getting a new PS, and they wanted $20 for a new one and would not honor warranty on my Maxtor. They told me they would not honor it because they did not accept receipts from on-line purchases, and I had bought mine from Amazon.com a couple years ago. Probably also a side-affect of Maxtor being absorbed by Seagate?

 

[Steve56]

Well I wish I had read your reply a little earlier. I did the exact same thing. Maxtor fired right up.............It was all over in about 20 minutes.......One of my fellow workers had a think pad and the power suppley fit. Most of the specs were the same but the 3200 is 2 amps and the think pad supply was 4.5. While I had my tech support guy on the phone the 3200 started to get hot and smelled like electrical. I unpluged it right away but it was to late. Now no power and the silly green light will not come on. I hope I just fried the power suppy within the unit. I will hand it over to my support people to recover the data. That being said be sure to match up the specs of your power suppy cord before attempting this fix. I was a typical guy...more power must be better, right?

 

[Ibbysan]

I also wish I had found this forum earlier, and I'd be curios to hear back on whether your HD got fried or the PS. When I plug an incompatible PS into my HD now the green light briefly flashes once, so I'm wondering if it's worth buying a new compatible PS (or not). Keep me posted, please. Thanks in advance.

 

[Steve56]

I'm sending the HD to my tech support people today to see if its just the internal power supply or if in fact the HD is fried. They will also see if the data is recoverable. If not I was told they have a guru that can recover just about anything but it could be rather costly. Maybe up to $200. Lesson learned. It may be several days before I get back to the forum with information. Regarding a new compatable power supply, you might want to walk it into a bestbuys and see if they will plug it into a supply they have to test it. They are normally pretty helpful.

 

[cuadvantage]

I am also using the Maxtor 3200 personal storage and a couple weeks ago after my mac G5 was rebooted I noticed it wasn't mounted, rebooted and it was back and all was good. This morning my system had been rebooted and again I noticed it wasn't mounted. Tried a soft reboot, then a sys shutdown and reboot... still nothing... noticed that my system took longer to start up when the maxtor was plugged in to it than when it was disconnected. Tried the cord swap (we had another maxtor drive at work) and even swapped the usb cable, get the light, drive sounds like it is spinning up... but doesn't mount to the desktop. Any suggestions? There is valuable data on this drive and it has worked fine for over a year.