External Hard Drive Problem

[peteyt]

Hi there.

I have a Verbatim external, with about 250GB of space. A few days back it decided to break, it would start to boot up then struggle as if it couldn't boot before clicking, like it was rebooting itself, it constantly did this.

In case it just needed to cool down I left it with no luck. My worry was it had burnt itself out. I used to have a Western Digital external which I hardly used that got burnt badly (a friend took a look and told me something was actually wrong with the board or something).

When I opened the case some screws did fall out and I wondered why but took the hard drive out and looked at the back, didn't look burnt like the rest. I haven't took the front casing off as I don't have an Allan key small enough but did notice the actual hard drive inside is made by Samsung.

I then decided the screws that fell out might have meant it wasn't fully connected and re-screwed the hard drive into the case. Now when I plug it in it detects the hard drive but just as "Removable Disk (E)" - opening it just prompts me to insert a disc.

Safely Remove Hardware now has a different drive, it used to say Verbatim or something similar now I get Sunplus USB2SATA bridge USB Device.

Is my hard drive dead?

Any help will be appreciated, have a lot of backups on there sadly.

Thanks.

[Jam]

You could try a USB HDD caddy and see if its the actual drive or the casing that has gone. They're about £10 in PC World. If it has gone you could just buy a standard HDD and place it in there, might save yourself a few quid.

[peteyt]

Cheers if i can't get it to detect it might have to try it

[ChristopherH]

Hey There,
You can Download "Hirens Boot CD"

Burn it to a Disc and boot it on start up and select

Hardisk Tooks > HDD Sentinal > Grapical Test > Full Scan

This will tell you the life of your HDD and how long its been turned on. anything under 80% is bad. you should be getting 90 - 100%

[LMS16]

Hey There,
You can Download "Hirens Boot CD"

Burn it to a Disc and boot it on start up and select

Hardisk Tooks > HDD Sentinal > Grapical Test > Full Scan

This will tell you the life of your HDD and how long its been turned on. anything under 80% is bad. you should be getting 90 - 100%

If it doesnt boot up then its not going to be recognised...

Also, try changing the power supply

Lew.