Iomega external hard drive not working

misskool

I'm in the middle of moving files from my old mac to my new mac using my iomega minimax external hard drive and it's stopped working.

There's a blue light that lights up at the front when you turn it on and it's not being lit anymore, I can't hear the whirring noise as well.

It's been in use for about 45 mins straight, and I thought it was ejected by the old Mac but when I pulled it out it said that it wasn't ejected yet but that's never made the drive shut down like this before.


Is it dead or is there hope of bringing it back to life? There's quite a lot of stuff on there that I would like to keep.

please help

busenbust

Could you restart your machine perhaps and then try a different (usb) port?

misskool

busenbust wrote: »

Could you restart your machine perhaps and then try a different (usb) port?

but I can't hear the external hard drive and there's no light indicating power to the drive. The power supply is still working.

Just been googling and it seems they are prone to being overheated as their auto setting doesn't kick the fan in enough

Can I do surgery and use the hard drive in it in a different casing? is it easy?

busenbust

but I can't hear the external hard drive and there's no light indicating power to the drive. The power supply is still working.

Fair enough, only a suggestion

misskool

Just flicked the switch and the light flickers and cuts out.

Is that good or bad?

MsRed1

Maybe let it cool down?

davb

misskool wrote: »

but I can't hear the external hard drive and there's no light indicating power to the drive. The power supply is still working.

Just been googling and it seems they are prone to being overheated as their auto setting doesn't kick the fan in enough

Can I do surgery and use the hard drive in it in a different casing? is it easy?

I would let it cool down properly (overnight), then connect it up and see if it runs - if it does, copy your stuff off quick (most important first). Disks that have heat problems tend to fade quickly when running.

I am reasonably sure you should be able to transplant the drive into another housing, assuming it is ok. You would need to get the correct interface IDE(PATA) or SATA. The only ones I have seen that you can't are the newer 2.5" drives that have an onboard USB controller.
You will probably find there are screws hidden under the stickers or the feet on the case

hc25036

Had this happen to me a while back. If you find it is dead Google for dismantling instructions and transplant the drive to either a caddy or use it as a slave in a PC (come back here for help if you need it). From memory the drive will be formatted as ext3.