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external HD failure

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by curaspqr

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Hi, whilst defragging my Buffalo HD-HB250U2 250 GB external drive- it stopped being picked up by my laptop. It has never been dropped, had liquid spilled etc. I have had it 6 months. If I turn it on on either auto or manual power mode- the green power LED lights, I can hear the disk spinning, instantly the USB connection jingle plays (and the disconnection plays when I turn it off or disconnect), the red LED for access lights briefly and the disk makes about one second's worth of the low clicking noises it normally makes when functioning. Then the access LED never comes on again and the drive is not present in my computer. I noticed that my itunes have been skipping regularly and have had to redo lots of CDs to ameliorate the problem. How can I get my data back- I am writing a novel- I printed out the 180 000 words 5 weeks ago and so have a relatively recent version but can I get my files back?
Chris

3 replies

by tg2

Depends on what kind of failure you're having.

is the problem in the USB to IDE or Sata conversion or is it the drive itself.

Its going to cost you, to find out. Either time, or cost of parts to play with. Ways to troubleshoot, take the external unit appart, take the drive out and attach it into a PC and see what it sees. If a relatively new pc has no problems seeing the drive, and getting you access, then the problem could be the USB interface electronices.

Although, even before doing the disassembly, you could take the unit to another machine, install any drivers needed, and see if you can access the external drive from someone else's computer..

if it works from someone else's computer, then you're looking back at your own for problems (driver / hardware related)

by entawanabi

While it is assumed that all memory places are formatted, it does not mean it is so.
To me, there may also be that this WAS not formatted, except for the factory format and the content exceeded the volumne it was able to hold. Also it may not have been Configured to hold some of the types of content it had in it and ruptured and strange stuff got in and fragmented it. The old DOS command recover, with restore could get it back and in a usable shape or form, maybe; don't know enough about that particular field to say so definitly.

Enta Wanabi

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