Techies HELP! Hard drive down!

[HotHolly]

DRIVE DOWN!

I have a SimpleTech external hard drive (and of course its only a month old) that appears to have departed the earth for the appliance grave yard.

I turn it on - it spins up to speed and stops. The computer cannot detect it and the blue light on it is flashing this pattern - 1 blink PAUSE 3 blinks.

Tech people HELP! How can I get my computer to detect it? Does the pattern its flashing mean something. I googled it but so far nothing. I have stuff backed up - but Im gonna loose all my post from today. HELP!

Any ideas??? I have a tech guy thats freakin expensive, but I was hoping the flashing meant something usable. Or that I could do something simple to get it to detect the drive and pull today's work off.

THANK YOU!!!!

[ggmex4wd5sp]

Have you tried it on another computer?

[hhscr]

I had a similar experiance with a drive, and was told to try another encloser that it might be the circuit board in the enclosure, I did put it in a diffrent enclosure and I was able to get it back. It was not a simpletech brand but I hope this helps. I do not know what the blinking lights mean.

P.S. Since this I have only bought Seagate Hard Drives for both internal and external drives. My Techy guy tells me that alot of the other brands just don't seem to last anymore.

[Davidtxs]

not sure about the flashing have you looked at this page ?
http://www.simpletech.com/support/

[HotHolly]

Originally Posted by ggmex4wd5sp

Have you tried it on another computer?

Yep - 2 other computers. Via a hub and directly into the computer. When I look for it - it doesnt show its there.

[HotHolly]

I sent them a message. Its after hours. Im not a techie and was hoping there was something simple to try to see if its dead or just mostly dead.

[kenw]

try a different USB cable, one from something that you KNOW is working. USB cables are notoriously wimpy.

if you are up to it:
take the drive out of the enclosure and install it inside your computer using the cables that presently aren't hooked to anything, or disconnet the ones going to your CD drive and use them. This will tell you if it is the enclosure or the actual drive. If it works inside the computer, a new enclosure is all you need. $25 or so.

[Hogleg 44]

There is a slim possibility that it could be the power supply. I have had similar problems with the computer seeing the drive, and the converter was the culprit. I had to get a new power unit.
I was able to do a test though because I had 2 exact same drives, and had to switch the one good supply between the two drives until the replacement came.

[ambidawn]

My husband is my personal techie...He said that the flashing is probably an error code specific to that hard drive (but then again it probably means what you already know: hard drive not detected). You may want to see if the website for that company tells what that sequence of flashing means. Good luck with everything!

[Wil_Bloodworth]

I have a few hard drives that stopped working via external means... but work perfectly hooked directly to the IO controller on the motherboard. Do that and get your data off of it... and then send it back and get another.

- Wil

[Demonic]

I know i'm kind of late but hey, better late than never. In my experiance this is usaly one of the problems stated above, i have recovered a few external hard drives for clients by pulling the drive out of the enclosure and putting it inside a computer. (Thank you 103.9FM The Pig for all the music :D) Mobile DJ services with cheap external Hard drives rock!

I also had a personal one (maxtor) start corrupting data, took it out of the enclosure and put it my home server, works great!

g'luck

[HotHolly]

Thanks all! Mike is gonna preform surgery later and see how far we get. I tried new cables this morning. I hate it when this happens!

In my pre-photog years, I lost all the work I did for my Masters degree when my drive failed. The profs had already chucked my papers, so there was nothing. I also lost all my children's baby photos. We paid through the eyes and got it all back, save a few files that refused. After I got it home on a new drive, it went bad again. I seem to have bad odds with computers. After that, I triple back up everything and store them in separate locations. Then I feel like Im paranoid - until something like this happens!

I'll let you know how it goes...thanks for your help. Those guys that do recovery make good $$$. I should have done that instead of getting a masters I cant use. Too late now!

[Demonic]

It will get better as Blue-Ray DVD climbs its way to mainstream, 25gig of photos safe on a disk, if the disk is safe. Would take a while to archive, i know some of you probably have a few hundred gigs or more of photo's.

I have been thinking about this a while because i strongly believe in backups, i have seen the result and looks on peoples faces. For the price of hard drives now days, buy a big external drive, back everything up to it then unplug it and put it somewhere safe.

[Dobick]

One trick that I have used in the past, in the case of an almost dead hard drive (first you need to detrmine that it is for sure the drive and not the enclosure). The trick that I have used in the past is to place the drive in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.

take it out and immediately plug it in, and if it recognizes it, immediately begin to pull the data off.

If all else fails, it could be worth a shot.