One terabyte Hitachi external hard drive not recognized

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greenzero

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Jan 31, 2011
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I own this:

http://www.amazon.com/Hitachi-SimpleDrivell-Turbo-External-Drive/dp/B002F9NBIM

I have had it for over a year and it has worked great. But now my computer won't recognize the drive. The hard drive spins up and the light flashes indicating it is turned on and connected to the computer. Device manager shows that drive is active and running fine.

But in my computer, the drive doesn't show. It showed once after I rebooted the computer and I could access my files for a little bit. But then it stopped showing up.

How do I fix this? Obviously the drive isn't dead.

I tried plugging the USB cord in different sockets and nothing changed. I also tried a different, brand new USB cable and same problem.

The HD does NOT show up in Computer Management. Someone suggested the drive has not been initialized or something but it is not listed there.



Hello,
 
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Okay so it works on my laptop!

I plugged the external into my laptop - that i never use - and it recognized the drive immediately! Why didn't I think of that??

So, why is my computer not recognizing the external drive? what is wrong with it? do i need to make another thread?!
 
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Inside your Hitachi enclosure there is a hard drive that uses a SATA connection.
Outside your Hitachi enclosure there is a USB connection.
Inside your Hitachi enclosure there is a small printed circuit board that translates SATA to USB. That's where the problem may be.

The problem could also be with your computer. Plug another USB device into your computer. Same problem?

You will need to do the trouble shooting to determine if there is a problem with your drive.

However all drives fail eventually. If you care about your data then make backups.



 
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But I said before the hitachi drive works fine with my laptop. My desktop recognizes the drive but it does not show up in my computer, only device manager.

ipod and other USB-related devices are recognized.

What would be wrong with my computer? Is there a problem with the external drive or not?>
 
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I am having the same problem, my hitatchi storage device is not recognized on my computer, but is in my device manager. i plugged it in to my other computer and it is still not recognized... what else can i do?
 
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Yes the problem is most likely with your external hard drive. When the USB connections start to fail, it can intermittently work or it may work on one computer but not another. If you can plug a different USB device into your desktop and it works, then the problem is with your external hard drive.



You probably have the same problem... the connection on your external drive is bad.

The only way to fix it is to have someone repair the external hard drive connection, or just open it up and take the hard drive out of it. I've had this happen to me with a Hitachi drive, and i just opened it and took the hard drive out.

If you want to open it... there should be a few screw holes (usually behind a 'void if removed' sticker) on the back. Remove those and slip the cover off. Inside will probably be a few more screws... remove them until you uncover the hard drive. Disconnect the cables on the hard drive, and then you can put it in your pc like a normal hard drive.

If you still want to be able to use it through a USB port, you will either have to get it repaired, or buy another external hard drive enclosure ($10-15) and put the hard drive in it.
 
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----> i am having the same problem. it works on my other laptop though. and i know its not the USB ports on this laptop because other things work in these same ports. What can i do?
 
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I know it's a slight digression but I recently purchased a 1TB Hitachi Simple Drive Rev.3 & copied all my "important stuff" onto it for safe-keeping. However, after only a couple of weeks it ceased to work. It would power up, the blue light would come on & the drive would spin, but it would not be recognised by any PC.
I thought I had 2 options:
1) To send it off to a professional data retrieval company (at a high price!!!); or
2) Return it to Hitachi, under warranty (Which would give me a new drive, but I'd lose all my important data).

I did notice that the Hitachi's USB port did seem a bit loose and knowing that my data was more important than a new drive, I voided my warranty &, putting a screw-driver into the small hole between the unit's power point & USB port, I prised the unit open - as gently as possible.

A couple of minutes later, I'd removed all screws from the cradle holding the hard-drive in place, connected appropriate SATA cables to it & connected it to my PC... & it's as good as new.

I hope this information is of use to anybody else who encounters similar problems.

Best wishes,

Mark Crawshaw,
Leeds
 
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I know it's a slight digression but I recently purchased a 1TB Hitachi Simple Drive Rev.3 & copied all my "important stuff" onto it for safe-keeping. However, after only a couple of weeks it ceased to work. It would power up, the blue light would come on & the drive would spin, but it would not be recognised by any PC.
I thought I had 2 options:
1) To send it off to a professional data retrieval company (at a high price!!!); or
2) Return it to Hitachi, under warranty (Which would give me a new drive, but I'd lose all my important data).

I did notice that the Hitachi's USB port did seem a bit loose and knowing that my data was more important than a new drive, I voided my warranty &, putting a screw-driver into the small hole between the unit's power point & USB port, I prised the unit open - as gently as possible.

A couple of minutes later, I'd removed all screws from the cradle holding the hard-drive in place, connected appropriate SATA cables to it & connected it to my PC... & it's as good as new.

I hope this information is of use to anybody else who encounters similar problems.

Best wishes,

Mark Crawshaw,
Leeds
Click to expand...


Hi Mark
I am having the same problem.
I have connected the SATA cable but it is giving me error 43. USB not recognised.
Can you suggest any option?
Thanks.
manjusha.rathi@tesco.net
 
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Check your mini usb cable.

Unplug your mini usb cable from the harddrive while connect it with the computer. If the computer still gets signal from the harddrive it indicates cable malfunction.

Replace cable should fix the problem.
 
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I have the same problem 2 TB, sometimes the so smart people texting the stupidest answers.

I dont say its the best solution but i had the same problem exactly just plug out both power and usb cable of the hard drive and plug in where you know an Usb device is detectable.
 
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Hi Guys

Sorry to be stealing the post, just hoping like minds can help me :)

Have a WD My Passport 1TB and all was working fine. Use it mainly for movies, was copying a file to it and it froze. I unplugged it without "removing it safely" (yes I know this is probably where the trouble it) and now I can't find anything. Plugged it into our DVD player to watch movies and it didn't show up as anything connected.
Plugged it back into my Comp and nothing came up (normally AutoPlay detects it immediately).
Have run Dskchk a number of times, sometimes it would say its in use and asked if i wanted to run it as startup (which I did do). For a short time it popped up in My Computer but was very very slow at accessing it (realise its probs corrupted).
But now I have nothing. It is flashing like its in use (again still not showing anywhere).
Can see it in Device Manager and Disabled and Enabled it after the message (device cannot be started) and now it reads that "the device is working properly", which of course it's not.

Have tried deleting it from device manager and reinstalling it. The driver wizard thing says the installation cannot be completed (cannot find the right stuff to install), as it searches for "unknown" instead of "My Passport" etc.
Have gone onto WDs website and downloaded the drivers from there and done the above step but browsed to that file instead of a random search.

The HDD is not showing up in Computer Management.

Oh it also makes a little clicking noise every now and then (awesome I know).

Thinking it's a lost cause, but hoping someone on here can help me fix it. Any advice would be great :).
Not looking to recover the files (although that would BE GREAT), but if i can get it working again, even from scratch that'd be awesome.
Thanks in Advance :)

Emily
 
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YES!! I had the same exact problem with my Hitachi drive. I tried a different (thicker) mini usb cable and BOOM it worked!
Thanks!!!
 
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This solution works for my 'non-recognized' Hitachi easy drive. My drive is a refurb from Hitachi... .... Hitachi if you are listening.....you really suck at workmanship in your assembly line!

0) Make sure your power is unplugged, USB cable is unplugged

1) Open up the case (there are two tabs on the top and bottom of the plastic case) - just push the tabs in with small screw driver and pull with some bit of force

2) Unscrew 2 screws on back of case (hidden under the 'P/N' and 'WARRANTY IS VOID' stickers) --- who care since the drive is way out of warranty anyway

3) Now remove 4 littler screws holding the harddrive assembly from the plastic case.... phew

4) Locate the SATA-USB-POWER circuit board --> this is the board on the top of the hard drive

5) On my drive, who ever reworked this PCB left A LOT of solder flux / cleaner mess behind --> this overtime leads to shorting of various components on this board = no hard drive read by the computer ... this is a very common issue with electronics that is reworked with POOR workmanship (probably by labor who has zero understanding of cleanliness in PCB manufacturing)

6) Use PCB cleaner (or even household IPA (no not the kind you drink!) - rubbing alcohol may work), remove any visible contamination bridging any of these components with clean lint free wipes (Q-tip would work but not as good as it's not lint free) --> you may need to also use a small wire brush / screwdriver to remove some of the gunk if the contamination is too much

7) dry everything with lint free wipes and reassemble, then test again the HD should work now.

Keep another old piece of electronic away from the landfill!
 
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Problem SOL-VED!! (For me anyway, and I ain't no tech-head - just an Irishman who thinks a 'puter is a bag of spuds!

Like others, it would not show on 'My Computer' though it showed as 'working properly' in Device Manager. W7.

My 1TB NEW Touro Hitachi wouldn't show after I cancelled a 'partition-clone' that was in progress. Shook it, kicked it, and kissed it after I found the solution.
If you're lucky enough that it shows in Device Manager, Right Click it
go to Properties
Driver
Uninstall it

Unplug it and re-connect it

Go to Control- Panel
Computer Management - Storage - and Disk Management

There are several windows there (lotsa blue bits) and I can't remember how and where, but I found the little sucker and right-clicked it, and then selected the 'Volume Simple - Basic' and that showed it up in my 'Computer'. I had to rename it, as 'Touro' was replaced with the 'F' Drive of my computer - your's might be D or E - I have several internal drives, hence the 'F'.

Maybe someone can fill in the last of this solution mentioned above (around the blue bits) but I think you'll find enough before that to take you to the recovery.
YIPPEEE!!! Let me know - John South Australia

BytheWay: I only purchased the Touro because (although more expensive) it was rated as the BEST and most reliable - then I found out the company had been taken over by Western Digital who were rated the WORST. I had one of theirs - a WD 1TB - used it once to back-up and a year later went to do a reinstall and it had died in the meantime - already out of warranty; and into the bin. Never again! Next time I'll take my chances with the cheapest one in the store!! :bounce:



 
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