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Hard Disk Totally Dead

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by logan_657

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Hello,

I have a Maxtor 5000Le 80GB external unit. I am running Windows XP Pro. I've had this unit for years and it has been great. About a month ago my computer locked when booting and after checking out all my external hardware, I found out that this unit had caused the problem. It seemed that the usb port or the cable was the problem. When I unplugged the usb, plugged it into another port, and even replugged it into the original port all of a sudden it started working again. It has been working fine since then until today. . . Now the problem is: . . . . Windows boots just fine. . it just doesn't recognize this external hard drive at all. The hard drive is not making any noise at all, the green light on the unit is turned on showing that the unit is powered up. . .just no noise. I tried it with a new usb cord and still nothing. It's like an internal switch is out or maybe the internal usb connector on the unit is damaged or something. Please help. This unit has years and years of information in it and I really need to be able to get to it.

Thank you,

6 replies

by koks

Hi logan!
I have one external drive rack with "regular" IDE disk drive in it. Disk is plugged in rack using 80pin parallel ATA cable. I had similar problems with my unit and I opened the rack, changed the PATA cable and it solved my problems. I used regular 80pin PATA cable as replacement. Once again, please note that my rack is using standard 3.5" IDE disk. I am hot sure how this 5000LE is constructed, but I would open the rack and see if I can do something. If it is not working, I don't see what you have to loose. Also, if it is using standard IDE disk, i would check the power supply cables inside the rack.
I hope you get your data out of this disk.

by kevin_476

Did you try to open your external box with a drive, and connect your drive directly to your computer (slave it) if you'll see it in windows, that means problem with a box
if you still wont see drive in windows, that means problem with a drive.
Also, if you are saying drive isn't making any noise, make sure it?s spinning up
listen to the box when you press power button. And unfortunately if you still face problems then I guess you must contact a data recovery Lab. One I know is SAlvageData Recovery Lab INC, an ISO 9001 company and here is the address of the lab: -76 Progress Drive, Corporate Park, and Stamford, CT 06902. My friend has faced dangerous problems regarding data recovery and we have seen how this lab has given best result and recovered data. You can also. May be this will help.

by absolutely

If your BIOS has been reset, you should also notice a problem with the date/time and not be having problems with USB storage in isolation. Unfortunately, stranger things have happened. I'd check everything USB & storage related, even what seems improbable, just because I've seen enough malfunctions which turned out to have very, very 'unlikely' causes.

by deadly ernest

the other option is to open the box and try the hard drive in another external case or plugged into the system's IDE channel.

by now left tr

following the advice above. This is a good time to highlight the virtues of having a good backup system in place. Problem is that it takes getting burn for most to realise this.

by kebbo_125

I have the same problem with my Maxtor 5000LE. How did you solve this and if you had to take it somewhere what were the costs like?

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