external hard drive not recognised

[saoirse]

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

[Plastic Nev]

Hi and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help saoirse,

If it has been stored in a cupboard for some time I suspect it may be nothing more than an internal connection, either loose if it has been knocked, or very slight corosion on contact pins.

The case should be easy enough to open, (with it disconnected and powered off) then check the plug and socket(s) inside, just remove and replace is usually enough to make a poor connection good again. Same for external connections too.

I will warn about storing electronics inside wooden cupboards or cabinets, certain woods do over time give off a slightly acidic vapour, which can be the cause of this trouble.

 

If storing equipment for any length of time, it is best to seal it inside a dry plastic bag with as much air expelled as possible.

Let us know if that works or not please.

Nev

[saoirse]

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.

[Plastic Nev]

Ok, with the cover off, you should see a cable going from the point where USB cable goes in which should then be plugged in to the drive unit itself, it is that plug and socket I meant, also trying another or new USB cable is worth a go at too.

Also, is there another computer you can try it on?

Just to be sure it is the drive and not something in your computer settings.

Nev.

[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

[Plastic Nev]

Hi, thanks for the update, but don't take the word of PC World for granted, try and find a reliable local repairer and ask their opinion before going further. If it does need specialist help to recover the data, a local guy might be cheaper.

Nev.