saoirse

Tried all the above but no change, so I took it into PC World. They basically told me it's dead due to a hardware problem (although not obvious what) and will cost 100 pounds to recover the data.. Although recovering the data nulls the warranty ?! I don't think I'll be using external hard drives to back up again. Thanks for the help though Nev - S

Thanks for the welcome and advice Nev, Not sure what you meant by remove and replace internal plugs and sockets (sorry - I really am a beginner!). I opened up the hard drive fine, but didn't want to unscrew any of the pieces in case I made it worse.. Needless to say - problem is still the same. Is it worth trying a new USB cable? S.

I bought an 500gb Iomega hard drive USB 2.0 about 6 months ago. When I first connected it it worked fine and I transferred a whole load of data. It's been sitting in my cupboard ever since, but now when I try and connect it again my PC doesn't recognise it. I've looked in disc managment and it's just not there. I've also tried rebooting a number of times. It doesn't appear on other PCs either. The hard drive has power and looks to be working fine (the light is on and steady). Not sure what other info is needed.. operating system is Vista Home Basic. Any suggestions would be most welcome! Thanks, Saoirse