Freecom external hard drive

VanMan2007

Had this 400GB hard drive for about 6-7 years. Only started using it regularly about a year ago. Recently it has started to malfunction, with the pop-up on Windows saying "One of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it."

I disconnected power and rebooted it and that seemed to resolve the problem 4-5 times. But now it won't restart.

Is this a terminal problem, or is there anything i can do to fix it?

And if it is terminal, can I cannibalise the memory sticks from the unit to add to my own computer to expand it's memory?

Any recommendations for a new hard drive? Looking at this one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-STBV2000200-Expansion-External-Drive/dp/B0084LZI5Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1355590127&sr=8-2

Avoriaz

When an external disk fails it is frequently the caddy and not the actual disk that has failed. Take the caddy apart, remove the disk and check it on another device if possible.

A 7 year old disk is likely to be IDE/PATA and not SATA so you need a suitable caddy or whatever to use to check it. That would also determine whether you can use it in your computer. Computers less than a few years old will usually be SATA. You could add a PATA disk with additional hardware or cables but would that be worthwhile?

I wouldn't trust my data to a 7 year old disk so I would get a new one even if the actual disk is working and it is the caddy that has failed.