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Maxtor One Touch IV 750gb

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by dmck

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We have a 3 month old 750gb Maxtor external storage device that is not being accessed by our PC running on Windows Vista. The device shows in my computer, shows 630gb of info, yet files all show 0 bytes. When try to open a file, I/O error is shown. We have tried running unit on two other PC's, one running on Vista also, 2nd on XP. Nothing is able to open either. We also tried opening on both a firewire and alternate usb cable. Tried a diskcheck in DOS, and that did not show anything. Our choice seems to be to send out for data recovery. It seems like there should be a way to restore communication between the storage unit and the PC. Has anyone been able to reach an positive result in this type challenge? Seems as we look around it has happened to others. Would really like to hear from anyone successful...

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by seanferd

especially if this is anything other than a plain hard drive, i.e., it runs its own software like some home entertainment/file sharing drives.

If it is a plain-old external hard drive, it sounds like the file allocation table/descriptors are bad.

You could try scanning it with a program like Recuva http://www.piriform.com/recuva
to see if that helps (don't try to write anything to the problem drive, though).

If a file recovery program cannot pull up the actual files, a data recovery house may be your only bet. You don't really want the average Joe playing with forensic software on this if the data is important.

In the future, best to have an additional drive to which you back up regularly. (But don't leave it connected all the time, just for backups.)You never know what can happen.

by hal 9000

If not the Partition Tables have been corrupted by turning off the Computer or unplugging the HDD's USB Cable. This just removes the Sync Controls that control the HDD and doesn't Park the Heads or spin down the drive correctly.

You may get away with a Check Disk Repair Option from Windows but if the Data is [b]Important[/b] it's best not to mess with the drive just pack it up and send it to a Data Recovery House to get them to recover your Data.

If this is one of the Media Center Drives with it's own Software you will need to test the External Drive with the Maxtor Drive Testing Utility available free from here to confirm if it is actually a HDD Failure, Partition Corruption of Interface Board between the USB/Firewire Connectors and the HDD. Just select your External Drive Type in the Heading of [i]Other Diagnostic Options[/i] and follow the directions.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=SeaTools&vgnextoid=720bd20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

OH and it's always wise to use an External Power Adapter on all of these External Drives to prevent problems from underpowered USB/Firewire Ports.

Another thing that the External Drive Sellers will not tell you is that these devices are not for Full Time Use they should only be plugged in when needed and then dismounted after you have finished writing Data too them or Reading Data from them. The External Enclosures do not protect the HDD's in them from Vibrational Damage and they do cause the drives to Overheat because there is insufficient surface area to keep the drives cool. If you need to use a External Drive for long periods of time you need to use an actively cooled case like the MX1 from Antec. This will keep the drive within the correct operation Temperature but will only marginally improve any case of Vibrational Damage that the Drives suffer and will not stop the Partition Corruption if the drive is not correctly dismounted.

http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=NDc=

Col

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