Seagate 400GB....Not being recognized.

[Gfinch]

I have this, just not with the firewire.

Yesterday, I booted up my PC and I noticed my external HD wasn't showing up in My Computer or in Disk Management. I checked the cable and changed it, no problem there and made sure the HD was turned on. It turned on fine and I can hear it spinning, then it goes into idle. There is no 'windows bleep' when it is plugged in.

I tried it on my laptop and the same thing, it just isn't showing up. It worked fine on Friday.

Any suggestions? Ideally I need the data off it then I'll buy 2 1TB HDs. I have some data backed up (160GB) but I'd like to get as much off as possible.

Thanks in advance.

[quikgoner]

Does the HDD make any grinding or clicking noises and has it had any hard knocks since it was last working? If it does it means that the HDD is damaged and you'll have to send it back to WD to get a replacement. I'm not sure if they would recover the data for you though.

If it doesn't make unusual noises then its likely that one of the connectors in the enclosure is damaged.

[chrisj]

If its not in warranty/you care about the data more it might be worth taking the drive out of your enclosure. Not sure on the exact model of your enclosure, but the power connector suggests its a 3.5" drive, it'll be either PATA or SATA, so you should be able to install it internally to your PC. If it works then, you can recover the data and install it into another enclosure. Otherwise you may have to resort to a data recovery service, don't know much about these sorry.

[Gfinch]

Thanks guys. Yea, I took it out of the case and it works fine and I bought a new case from scan

[Boon72]

i have the 500gb esata version and unless its switched before my pc it doesnt get recognised