External HD Failure???

[TARPSBird]

I hope somebody can help me out, even if it's just to confirm that I'm screwed. :frown: I started up the computer tonight and got some unusual multiple errors that hung up the boot process. Tried Ctrl+Alt+Del, didn't work so I pushed the big button and started over. During the re-start my Western Digital external HD made some unusual noises, as in click-click, click-click, several times. It's the same noise it normally makes once when I shut down the pooter. Sounds like it wants to start up but can't. When the boot-up completed and I clicked on My Computer, Windows did not recognize the external. Tried a couple more re-starts, same thing. Can't run the WD diagnostics because it can't detect the HD. I've had this HD since July 2007 and this has not happened before. I had moved my entire CFS2 and my previous FS2002 install over to the external to make room for FS9 on my internal HD. Any comments or suggestions would be welcome, before I contact WD.

[Skyferret]

I believe it has a power adapter plugged in to it. You could try unplugging it and power it down for a few minutes. Kinda like a hardware reset. Also, swap USB cables from a working device (unless you tried that already). Just a couple of low tech options before banging head on wall.

You mentioned your system hung up when booting. I'm not too sure, but should this drive show up in the BIOS? If so, and it's capacity reads "0", that could be major problems.

I'm no expert on external HD's, but it's a couple of simple suggestions.

[Piglet]

Ummm. My external HD did the same thing. Had to disconnect it to enable normal comp function. Since ext HD's are rather cheap, I gonna just buy a new one. As to why it went belly-up who knows...

[hey_moe]

Hey T, can you reset the BIOS, if not try holding in the shut off button for thiry seconds, can ya get into safe mode.

[FAC257]

If all else fails, go ballistic on the external casing. :)

About a year or so ago I bought a Seagate FreeAgent external hard drive. Within a year, I came home one day turned on the main system and then the Seagate external.

The system didn't recognize the drive anymore. The lighted indicator code on the front of the drive translated into "Drive Failure".

I tried every sort of trick know to man to get the drive back online with no luck. It was probably still under warranty, but the thought of sending off a hard drive with all my payware, photos etc on it wasn't an option.

So out came the hammer and tools. :)

I busted off the cosmetic shell and unplugged all the external HD extra wiring. I ended up with a bare Seagate Barracuda HD that when I plugged that directly into the motherboard it worked perfectly.

It was all the external non-sense attached to the HD that rendered it out of commission and was causing the issue.

FAC

[Odie]

I hope somebody can help me out, even if it's just to confirm that I'm screwed. :frown: I started up the computer tonight and got some unusual multiple errors that hung up the boot process. Tried Ctrl+Alt+Del, didn't work so I pushed the big button and started over. During the re-start my Western Digital external HD made some unusual noises, as in click-click, click-click, several times. It's the same noise it normally makes once when I shut down the pooter. Sounds like it wants to start up but can't. When the boot-up completed and I clicked on My Computer, Windows did not recognize the external. Tried a couple more re-starts, same thing. Can't run the WD diagnostics because it can't detect the HD. I've had this HD since July 2007 and this has not happened before. I had moved my entire CFS2 and my previous FS2002 install over to the external to make room for FS9 on my internal HD. Any comments or suggestions would be welcome, before I contact WD.

Tarps, if all else fails, see if the GEEK SQUAD can salvage any of the data for you. They've done a good job of getting data back for my son's PC.

[FengZ]

yup, FAC257's suggestion is perfect if all else fails.

I too did the same thing on 2 LACIE drives i bought a while back. These 250gig HD sat in the closet for about 2 years. One day i plugged them in and nothing would happen. The lights turn on, they seem to spin up, but XP would just not see them. So i unscrewed the case, and just removed the HDs. I swapped them into these HD tower racks i have, and XP saw them right away.

I think most of the time, it's the onboard USB/reader boards in these external drives that get fried or break. The HDs are actually perfectly fine.

btw, here are some HD racks you can buy. They are really cool and you can just keep stacking them and add in more HD as you go. Through out the years, i have about 10 external HDs. Now i just removed the case for all of them, and consulidated them into these racks. Now i have a mega storage space (plus they are in RAID format, so two harddrives act as one....giving you instant backups).

http://www.newegg.ca/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=43&name=HDD-Accessories

-feng

[Daveroo]

i bought an Iomega external HD when i had my dell XP machine..allways worked fine..then i bought my more better (hehe) gateway pc with vista and the external HD would crash the vista machine..to the point i was tryin to format to recover..i thought my machine had just died...then i would unplug all the "stuff" i had pluged in external HD,printer,rudder peddles,throttles,yoke,speakers.ect..and it would boot fine..i finaly worked it all down to the external HD as the cuplrit...so now if i need to store something,or retrieve something,,i leave the PC on and just plug it in and power it up..then unplug it..does no harm and nothing crashes...BUT if i leave it connected and shut down..it crashes my system and it wont boot back up

[Gdavis101]

I learned to make a backup of your external backup and keep it on a drive inside the computer. I went to an external about 6 months back, copied ALL of my FS backups to it and deleted them from my internal drive. Turned on the external one day and it started to catch on fire! Smoke was billowing out, cut the power and the drive was dead.

I removed the drive from its case, tried replacing the circuit board with one from an exact model but I was never able to get any of the information back. I keep my backups in two places now.

[FAC257]

What a plan!

I use my second internal HD as my primary back up. Then to be safe I bought an external HD to back-up my primary internal HD back-up. Then to make sure my primary external HD back-up of my primary internal HD back-up was safe, I bought a secondary external HD.

Then, while it was working the secondary external HD back-up contained the primary back-up of my primary external HD which is the secondary back-up of my primary internal back-up.

But after that secondary external HD stopped working as an external, it is now back inside the case. So I'm backing up the primary internal stuff by safely keeping it on an external HD and then to make sure that external HD stuff is safe it gets backed up back inside the computer.

Waaaaaaaaaa! :d

[JSpal]

Can you hear the disk spinning up when it first gets power?

I had a harddrive that died a couple of years ago. I was talking to a co-worker about it. He was a former Geek Squad tech. He recommended that I plug it into an external enclosure and power it up, and at the same time rotate it around (like sitting it flat on my desk and rotating it by hand 180 degrees back and forth). He said it wouldn't fix it, but it might get it to spin up long enough to get important data off of it.

I tried it, and sure enough it worked.

I guess either there is a start circuit on the motor that spins the platters, or the motors get too weak to start the platter from a stop, but if you give them a little boost, they'll spool up to speed.

Anyway, if it's something else wrong with the drive, it probably won't work, but it's work a try and it doesn't cost anything.

He also said that sometimes putting them in a different orientation, like sitting on a side or upside down will work.

[gigabyte]

OK this may seem like a weird suggestion, but I have resorted to the following as a last resort numerous times, and I have been successful in reviving the drive about 2 out of 3 times so if you want to try...

pop the puppy in the deep freeze... I generally give it about 2 hours so it is real nice and cooled off, then warm it up to room temp again, and try to fire it up... This can be repeated several times if it does not work the first try...

I know it sounds crazy, but it often works, the problem with the Tick, Tick, sound and a drive that is not reconized is often head alingment, expansion and cointraction can cause the heads to misallign and they do not properly catch the mater boot record of the drive, when this happens a couple of cycles of chill, warm can help... be warned though, if you do succeed, I would get everything off the drive you want and replace it. I would never trust the drive again. The other more radical thing I have tired a few times, is to give the thing a good slap or three, this can also sometimes reset the heads and allow them to read teh MBR

[TARPSBird]

Thanks everybody for your suggestions so far.
I tried smacking the HD once or twice last night, even before I made my original post. I have unplugged the external HD from the power supply and plugged it in again hoping it will re-initialize itself - no luck. I've tried this with the USB plug attached and without, and I've tried plugging the USB cord into a different socket - still no luck. Right now I have the external attached to my computer and it clicks periodically but that's about it. Drive spins only momentarily. It's not being recognized by Windows, but it does appear in the BIOS. It's just a line entry, I don't know how to "reset" the BIOS and I'm not going to risk hosing up my computer to fix what may be an already dead HD. I'm going to attempt to run the Western Digital diagnostic check tonight before I go to bed. Tomorrow I may try Gigabyte's freezer trick. After that I may check with Geek Squad to see if I can recover anything. I'd sure like to recover my CFS2. :frown: If anybody else wants to put in their 2 cents, go right ahead.

[Snuffy]

I go with FAC's idea .. I had a 60 gig external server that crapped out on me, no amount of working, tweaking, calling tech service, or etc could get the thing to work.

Finally in frustration, I took a screwdriver to the case and within a few minutes I had two perfectly functioning 30 gig harddrives that slipped into my box with no problems.

Usually it'll be the stuff that makes them external that'll go bad first. The drive units themselves are usually pretty stable.

[TARPSBird]

I attempted to run the Western Digital diagnostic check last night and it wouldn't run because the HD was totally dead. If push comes to shove and I decide to take it apart, I'll definitely be back for more guidance.