External USB hard drive not working

Btw it's not a seagate drive and it's less than a year old...
 
mikaME said:
Btw it's not a seagate drive and it's less than a year old...
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clouseau.gif
 
ponder said:
Remove the drive from the enclosure and connect it directly to your pc via a SATA port. The drive or the usb-sata controller could be faulty.

Your PC sees the usb-sata controller and not the actual drive.

Removing the drive from it's enclosure would void your warranty!
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+1 for this. Had identical problem with an external and this worked. Yes I voided the warranty but so would eventually hurling it at the wall in sheer frustration :o

What brand is it?
 
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mikaME said:
Btw it's not a seagate drive and it's less than a year old...
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Well, inside could be Seagate.
I see guys are heating up! Who offer to check it out first? [for recognition only, no strings attached]
 
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Can anyone recommend a pc shop in the Sandton/Midrand areas? Preferably one that will not rip me off :)
 
Silence... guys wake up! ;)
Don't know. I don't do shopping for computers.
If you can dtive R562 towards Diepsloot, maybe I can check it 4u. PM on Email address for details.
 
So... The drive is fried :( Took it into matrix computers. Now to try and recover the data... Lesson learned, back up your data!!
 
mikaME said:
So... The drive is fried :( Took it into matrix computers. Now to try and recover the data... Lesson learned, back up your data!!
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Did they take the drive out of the enclosure to test it or just told you it is fried ??
 
He said he could take it out but it's not goin to help... It came up in disk management as uninitialized. After initializing it came up with an error to the effect that the disk is unreadable.

The guy said the disk is not spinning? And coupled with the ticking sound, it's the disk itself that is damaged...

I don't know... Really not happy right now lol
 
mikaME said:
He said he could take it out but it's not goin to help... It came up in disk management as uninitialized. After initializing it came up with an error to the effect that the disk is unreadable.

The guy said the disk is not spinning? And coupled with the ticking sound, it's the disk itself that is damaged...

I don't know... Really not happy right now lol
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Well all depends on how valuable the info on the drive is there are people who will recover your info .
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/member.php/110079-South_Bit is the guy if you need recovery
Best of luck
 
mikaME said:
He said he could take it out but it's not goin to help..
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This is a lie. Some faulty external drives are recognised when plugged directly to SATA controller. It is why I wouldn't trust a guy who said it to you.
Perhaps guy is looking for the case of 5 minutes fix and charge a lot. Don't want to pay qouted amount, your data will never be recovered.
 
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mikaME said:
He said he could take it out but it's not goin to help... It came up in disk management as uninitialized. After initializing it came up with an error to the effect that the disk is unreadable.

The guy said the disk is not spinning? And coupled with the ticking sound, it's the disk itself that is damaged...
Click to expand...

The drive will either not be spinning up at all, or it could be spinning up and making the ticking sound you refer to. It can't be doing both, unless you mean it spins up, clicks and spins down, which is probable.

If it doesn't spin up at all then this is good news and a relatively cheap fix (unless it was dropped).
 
The guy said the disk isn't spinning.

I notice what sounds like spinning, tick, stop. Repeat.

And I did not drop the drive. It was plugged into my pc when it just stopped working :(
 
I made quick check here:
It is LG HXD7 1TB with Western Digital WD10TPVT SATA drive inside and JM20329 USB2.0 converter. It is not encrypting chip, so drive can be plugged to PC.
On PC drive respond ERR to identity command. In result it is recognised as a device, but no utility is able to recognise it and work on it. I haven't tried manual SCT commands, I have set of scripts I experimented on ailing WD Royl drive, but it is probably not worth it (not 100% safe with my knowlegde).
Drive actually spins up nicely, but not usual recalibration (fast positioning) noise. It starts track to track seek, then higher frequency also track to track (probably return). It indicate complete read channel failure, I think. Five attempts about 1 second duration each, then goes quiet. Not sure whever it spins down afterwards, as it is very silent (can check it now if needed).
Not good news. Not a case of partial ID in resoponse to identify command (typical to drives with firmware problem). It returns ERR and BSY, but BSY can be reset, so PCB is responding.
 
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mikaME said:
Help? Anyone? :(
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I'm afraid if you want help you'll need to send the drive to a data recovery lab and expect to pay a few thousand in recovery fees.

We are based in Cape Town, there are others in JHB. If your data is worth the money to you then that's your only option.
 
:( Not what I want to hear but thank you. I have looked up a few data recovery specialists in the area. Will have to decide if it's feasible!
 
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