External hard drive suddenly not working

Is it a 3.5"? Is it under warranty?

If it's a 3.5, you could probably crack the casing open and use it internally. If it is a 2.5, some manufacturers have a proprietary USB interface interface inside to make it compact, so it may not be possible. You will lose your warranty if you open it.

Once you have your data off, I would reformat it, put it back in the casing and try again.
 
bromster said:
Is it a 3.5"? Is it under warranty?

If it's a 3.5, you could probably crack the casing open and use it internally. If it is a 2.5, some manufacturers have a proprietary USB interface interface inside to make it compact, so it may not be possible. You will lose your warranty if you open it.

Once you have your data off, I would reformat it, put it back in the casing and try again.
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It is a USB portable and this will will not help.
 
Helghast said:
A normal PC repair place won't help?
How much are they generally? Because I think i'm reading their price list wrong.
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If it seems like a lot of money, you're probably reading it correctly.
There are two things I can add to this thread. First, the cloud. Second, a drive failing and losing all your data is only really devastating the first time around. After five or six, you really just check your slip to see if it's still in the warranty replacement period.
 
I've had three drives fail on me in the last year. Luckily no important data on them. One of them was a LaCie Quaddra which are meant to be more reliable than most.
 
greg0205 said:
If it seems like a lot of money, you're probably reading it correctly.
There are two things I can add to this thread. First, the cloud. Second, a drive failing and losing all your data is only really devastating the first time around. After five or six, you really just check your slip to see if it's still in the warranty replacement period.
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I'm reading almost 4k for hardware recovery and 2k for software, no way that's happening.
 
genetic said:
I've had three drives fail on me in the last year. Luckily no important data on them. One of them was a LaCie Quaddra which are meant to be more reliable than most.
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LaCie is just a (quality) brand of external USB/Thunderbolt/FW cases.
 
To add to the debate .... Transcend on the outside, probably Samsung on the inside.

I have had two ''Transcend'' USBs fail on me for no apparent reason - not saying they are bad, or that I didnt do something stoopid .... but just an observation.

Have had same happen to me with a Verbatim, I unplugged it inadvertently and it died like yours ..... Googled it, freezered it, opened it, unstuck it (some British dudes YT video) .... fekked it up completely. So I concur with Postman on this - unless you have that appetite for risk - your drive - your choice.

Typically - I save to my PC, and back up to external because of the sh*tty feeling you have at the moment ..... hope you come right.
 
TEXTILE GUY said:
To add to the debate .... Transcend on the outside, probably Samsung on the inside.

I have had two ''Transcend'' USBs fail on me for no apparent reason - not saying they are bad, or that I didnt do something stoopid .... but just an observation.

Have had same happen to me with a Verbatim, I unplugged it inadvertently and it died like yours ..... Googled it, freezered it, opened it, unstuck it (some British dudes YT video) .... fekked it up completely. So I concur with Postman on this - unless you have that appetite for risk - your drive - your choice.

Typically - I save to my PC, and back up to external because of the sh*tty feeling you have at the moment ..... hope you come right.
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They and most other external drive brands use all the big brands. WD, Seagate/Samsung - whatever's cheapest.

Transcend can only really be blamed for the components of the casing, namely the USB connector.

This is exactly why not to DIY if the data is important.
 
PostmanPot said:
They and most other external drive brands use all the big brands. WD, Seagate/Samsung - whatever's cheapest.

Transcend can only really be blamed for the components of the casing, namely the USB connector.

This is exactly why not to DIY if the data is important.
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Agreed - unfortunately, some us learn the hard way rather than take sage advice :o
 
PostmanPot said:
It is a USB portable and this will will not help.
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Not all external 2.5" drives have the usb port integrated onto the drives pcb.

If it does have a integrated usb port and you have some technical skills you can bypass the usb controller & solder a temp sata connector to recover data assuming the usb port/controller is the cuprit & it's not encrypted.
 
PostmanPot said:
Both are referred to as USB portable drives, USB implying USB powered.
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So what if they are powered via usb?

Remove them from the case and you are bound to find two different types of drives, one connected to a secondary pcb via a normal sata interface which you can unplug and connect to any desktop pc with sata ports and the other with the usb port/controller actually integrated into the drives logic board which complicates things as you cannot simply plug it into a normal pc via sata.
 
ponder said:
So what if they are powered via usb?

Remove them from the case and you are bound to find two different types of drives, one connected to a secondary pcb via a normal sata interface which you can unplug and connect to any desktop pc with sata ports and the other with the usb port/controller actually integrated into the drives logic board which complicates things as you cannot simply plug it into a normal pc via sata.
Click to expand...

Correct.
 
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