EXternal Hard Drive

lightstorm_2

I have had a Western Digital Passport 40G USB 2.0 Hard Disk for only a few weeks now & it seems to have crashed.Windows XP suddenly will no longer detect it!!The problem is I can't access the data (it has essential files,documents and passwords stored on it.) and I don't really want to return it until I have recovered the data for security reasons.Any solutions would be gratefully appreciated.

intel

http://www.wdc.com See if they have any diagnostic tools.

Whitefiver

Hmmm, my external disks are sometimes not recognised if I am too quick off the mark to turn the PC on after turning on the mains.

I always turn on the mains (which spins up the external drives), count to twenty, and then turn the PC on.

Works for me, but your mileage might vary.

Regards,

Tim S.

wildheart_2

boot your pc with the ext drive powered up but not connected to your pc when xp has loaded plug in ext to usb,if thats a no go then try it on a friends pc.if niether work you are stuffed as all you will get from the company you bought it off of is an repalcement.

John_Gray

It may seem like witchcraft, but have you tried plugging the external drive into a different USB port on the PC?

I have an occasional problem with a Maxtor external drive not being recognised (I'm using the firewire interface 'cos I've run out of USB sockets!), and if I swap the firewire plug from one to the other firewire socket at the back of the drive, I can often get it working.

I have taken to leaving the external drive powered on permanently, and haven't had a problem since then!

John

albertross_2

it has probably got a normal eide drive inside, if so, you could take it to bits, and connect it as a slave inside your PC, and get the data off, run chkdsk etc..

Mark_LJ

Be aware that this although this drive 'can' be taken to bits, it is a 2.5" drive as opposed to a 3.5" so you would need an adapter to connect it to your system as a slave. Adapters are cheap enough from places like Lindy.