Hard drive wont function

andover_2

Hi

I have an external hard drive that I use to back up data. It is a 1 gig Free Agent drive. This morning I noticed it wasn't showing up on the desktop.

When I switch the power on; the led light of the hard drive comes on and then immmediately goes off again.

I have had external hard drives fail before so am not expecting to save it. Was just wondering if anyone thinks it may be a faulty power supply?

The output of the power supply is 12 volts at 2 Amps. The writing on the plug is so small I have had to use a light to read it.

Thanks for any advice.

MrShazzyMan

First thing to check is by changing the header that gives power to the external hard drive and also gives the ability to read the hard drive. Seems like that is the problem. If that doesn't work and the problem still persists then listen to the hard drive while it is powering up and spinning the hard drive discs around inside. If you hear a loud click click click noise that means the hard drive is a goner.

Let me know what the outcome is.

debitcardmayhem

Has your PC been hibernated perhaps, mine does similar , I have to unplug the USB/Firewire and re-insert it

andy2004

How old is the external ?
if its still under warranty you could get a replacement.
if not
if its a 3.5in external like i expect and not a 2.5in it could be just the case, theres a little PCI board inside could have developed a fault and not the drive itself then its a case of getting a new case and moving the drive over. about £8 from novatech.
if you still think its the hdd, take the drive out, "if its not under warranty" and connect directly to the pc via the sata connection. looks like a L your pc should have a sata power lead on the PSU. you just need a sata data lead

andover_2

Thanks for replies folks. I have removed the header and attached it to a spare sata drive and it works ok. So I conclude that the header is not the problem.

I am going to remove the hard drive and attach it directly to the computer with sata cables.

The free agent drive is just out of warranty. I am more concerned with retrieving the data. I do have backups of most of it but there are some late additions that might be useful.

I am interested in the idea that the drive might be "hibernating". I seem to recall that this happened once before (which prompted me to back up all the data) and then the hard drive started working again.

So far it is impossible to "wake" the drive up again even though I have tried different usb cables. There is one led light that comes on however and seems to stay on. But there is no activity or communication between computer and hard drive.

I must say the header is a brilliant gadget that I can use to access my spare sata drive without having to put cables in the computer. So: all is not lost.

andover_2

Just to update. I switched the computer on this morning and the free agent hard drive sprang into life as though nothing had happened. Backed up the rest of my data immediately.

In my original post I said it was a 1 gig drive. I meant to say 1TB.

So it looks like it is a case of "hibernation".

Thanks for the advice.