External HDD Turns on and recognized but no show

JpnFfantasy

Junior Member
Nov 30, 2004
5
0
0
I have a LaCie external 500GB HDD "I don't know what model" it's a small silve rectangular box that needs to be powered.

I turn it off and on whenever I need it or don't need it.

Today I turn on my HDD and it turns on and I hear the computer's USB recognition sound. But it doesn't show in my explorer.

I touch the HDD and I don't feel the spinning or even hear the spinning. The yellowish orange light is turned on (normal). Nor does it get warm, even a little bit.

I got pictures, music, and videos and other stuff on that HDD. Is it fixable if not is the data recoverable?
 

RebateMonger

Elite Member
Dec 24, 2005
11,586
0
0
Even though a light is lit, it still might be the power supply for the external disk. Or the motor has failed. There are also internal "circuit breakers" on some hard disk controller boards, depending on the disk make/model.

If it's the motor, the repair is a job for professionals.

As you are seeing, it's not a good idea to store anything of value on just a single disk or other media. Hard drives are cheap and data recovery is expensive.
 
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Emulex

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
9,759
1
71
go to disk management. see if you can see the drive. on server o/s it will never automount.

on windows o/s say if you have drives f..z mapped to shares.

the drive is assigned drive F

until you change the assigned drive letter to say E or unmount the F mapping; it will not show.

thats how it works on my xp box. i only have drive F free (old school setup; many apps are ancient and have drive letters hardcoded bleh).

so if i plug in a usb stick having only one drive letter free it will not be seen at the same time.


on server o/s you must map manually or enable automount. you could cause all heck with automount on a server ;)