5tatman

Sorry for not gettign back sooner, I do appreciate the help. I have passed it on to a mate, who has a all drive thingy which is the equivilent of slotting in a new case apprently. Anyway this wouldn't work on ether of my laptops. but did on his p.c. So i managed to get access to my files and copy them over. I have now swapped the hard drive over to an HITACHI, for now. Once again thank you for taking the time to help me out. Much Appreciated. Dave

not sure what you mean? do you mean take it out of the 640 and put it n the 500 case. I.e. slide the metal block out? if so then i tried that and the problem remained. i don't have a pc anymore i do have access to another lappy

yes, it powers up and flashes, and i can feel it spinnning and vibrating

I have also tried on another laptop, same problem. It has worked fine from th eword go, and never been moved from it's current resting place.

Running a compaq CQ70-116EM - Vista premium. I have 2 external Maxtor Basics hdd 500gb + 640gb. they are only plugged in when i need to access them. On Sunday i plugged the 640gb in and it wasn't recognised. On the computer it says local drive (f). (f) drive is correct but i can't right click, look at properties, see anything!!!!. It doesn't even say ???gb free of 635gb. I downloaded sea tools for windows Maxtor Max Blast even just to try and diagnose(sp?) but both came up blank. I have been advised to swap the drives over in the 500 which i did. by this i just unplugged the metal box inside. Still the same out come. The 500gb is back working in it's original box again. Kind a stuck now. I have enough space on my 500 to copy the files from the 640, but getting access isn't good. prepared to try anything to get these files back. Don't mind ditching the maxtor afterwards (been advised!!!) but need the files. Any help, pointers greatly appreciated Dave