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...now isn't recognised by the PC.. Hasn't been used for months. Been stored in a dry environment, but room gets warm and cold at different times. It's working as you can hear it humming etc, but PC won't see it. Any thought dear boys?
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Do you mean that Windows Explorer can't see it or that the PC cannot see it at all?
[Right click "This PC", select "manage", choose "disk management" scroll down to see if you can find it].
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Does get its powered from the USB port or an external brick? Listen very carefully to it when it is first plugged in up, does it make a funny sort of clicking sound?
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Extremely faint clicking sound. Extremely faint.
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Mark it says unallocated.
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How old is the drive? If it is an older USB 2.0 then the interface maybe SATA, you be able to take the drive out of the case and hook it up directly to a SATA cable, however modern USB 3.0 ones only have a USB interface :(.
It is worth trying this on another PC, just in case there is a USB fault and the drive cannot draw enough power from the port.
The clicking sound may well be terminal, but I've seen a lot of drives do this when they are simply not getting enough power.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Mon 11 Jan 16 at 20:23
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>> How old is the drive? If it is an older USB 2.0 then the interface
>> maybe SATA, you be able to take the drive out of the case and hook
>> it up directly to a SATA cable, however modern USB 3.0 ones only have a
>> USB interface :(.
>>
>> It is worth trying this on another PC, just in case there is a USB
>> fault and the drive cannot draw enough power from the port.
If that were the case it would have been like that from new. It used to work, but now it doesn't.
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Yes i've been advised to try it on another PC. Prob is there isn't one to hand. usb2 i guess. Model HDDR160E03X
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>> Mark it says unallocated.
Its not reading the cd. Could be the cd, could be the lens. Clean the lens. Cotton bud - Gently its possible to knock it out of alignment.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 11 Jan 16 at 20:26
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I'm not so sure it reads a CD!
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>> it says unallocated.
It thinks it is unformatted.
That means right clicking on it and formatting it will almost certainly make the disk work again. However, it will lose any/all data on it.
So first, is there anything on the disk that you care about? Because if so, formatting is not the first place to start,
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 11 Jan 16 at 21:00
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...contd
On the other hand, recovering files from unallocated space (lost partitions) can be an a*** so if we don't have to do it, then let's not.
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But why the failure after years of working?
Can it be formatted if it can't be seen to click on?
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>>But why the failure after years of working?
Millions of reasons including willful and random act of God. Could be a bang, temperature, something electrical, bad disk block,anything really. Its a really tiny, tiny bit of damage. Might happen again next week, might never happen again.
Certainly it would be off my list of disks on which to keep vital, single copies of stuff. Fine for non-important stuff and copies of copies though.
>>Can it be formatted if it can't be seen to click on?
Go to where you found it marked as unallocated, which I assume was Disk Management.
Right click on the rectangle representing it, choose format.
Away you go.
Are you sure there's nothing on there you need? Because files can sometimes be recovered.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 11 Jan 16 at 21:19
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Only work stuff but I wouldn't want to PC to 'fall over' until I can find another method of back up.
What would you back up to?
If it is formatted will it work again?
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Hard drives are extremely fragile, I knocked one of my 1TB external ones the other day, it worked for a little while later and then failed the next day. Formatted worked again, failed again then destroyed it.
I always back up customers machines twice on two different drives, and I myself have a Synology with two hard drives (RAID) which then also gets backed up by an external.
The only thing you can ever guarantee a hard drive to do is fail it just that many people get rid of their machines before the drive fails.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Mon 11 Jan 16 at 21:45
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You could back up to another external, but if you want something more useful and reliable have a look at NAS boxes such as the Synology, they can be expensive though especially when fitting them with NAS drives.
You could also look at cloud backup solutions, although I am not keen on them.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Mon 11 Jan 16 at 21:46
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>>If it is formatted will it work again?
Almost certainly yes.
However, imagine it was a car and it suddenly stopped with a flat battery. You recharged the battery and it worked fine, however you do not know why the battery went flat, nor can you realistically find out.
One of those things never to happen again? Or what?
If you were just using it for work you'd probably never think about it again until and unless it broke again. If, on the other hand, your wife was 8 months pregnant and you lived 50 miles from hospital, you might worry a bit more.
Would I back up to it?
I would use it. I would use it in the computer and/or for backups. However many people would not, and they may well be more sensible. I guess it depends on your worry levels.
I have an external disk that it happened to before and it just now finally died about 3 years after the original event.
So, Yes, I would. But I would back stuff up to it which would be "bad" if I lost, not stuff which would be "disastrous".
Actually, I'd probably back up to it for now and have it in mind for reasonable early replacement.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 11 Jan 16 at 21:58
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I didn't get whether we thought the clicking was a problem or not but that is to do with either inadequate power or the heads sticking a bit. I have had disks which have the latter where a short sharp rap on them cured them. But it could just as easily kill it. Is the clicking go on and on or does it stop after a bit?
Also I don't see an answer as to whether it requires a separate power supply or whether it just plugs into USB and not electrics.
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It takes its power from the laptop only.
Clicking is short/brief upon powering up and down. Drive to ear when doing both.
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Toshiba external hard drive... - No FM2R
