20 Most Recent Iomega 500GB eGo Helium Portable 500 GB USB 20 Hard Drive Questions & Answers

Yes all external drives can be formatted but formatting will always wipe off everything on it. If you want to format it you can right click on it when it appears in Windows Explorer. You are usually offered the choice of file system FAT or NTFS. FAT is limited to a file size of about 4 GB, so usually choose NTFS, I am presuming you are talking Windows system. Then you would have to copy your files to it once again.

Hello Quincy964,
Ensure first that the computer where your Omega 500GB eGo Helium Portable plug-in, is an virus free PC. Your problem is mainly cause by an virus. You can unhidden it by 3 different methods;

Method 1:
By using "ireset" software
Here is the link : ireset
Just download the link,open the software then after just drag and drop the whole folder in the software then click reset. And all the files in your folder will automatically unhidden.

Method 2:
By using Linux Operating System
Just plug your Iomega 500GB eGo Helium Portable into an Linux Operating System, and automatically you can see or browse all the files in your hard drive.

Method 3:
By using Hiren's Boot CD
Just download and Hirens Boot CD (download here)
Download the file in the link, then after an successful donwload extract the files in the zip folder then burn it in Nero DVD Burner (Choose in the Nero DVD burner >burn images files) then after burning it. Restart your computer (makes sure that the Hirens Boot CD is inserted in your Optical Drive) boot it up in your Optical Drive ( F12 or F11 depending on the motherboard). After booting in the CD, Hirens meu will show then choose Mini XP. It will boot in an Windows XP like GUI, then plug-in your Iomega 500GB eGo Helium Portable into the PC then click into My Computer in the desktop, then open your folder and you will see all the files in there.

I hope it will solve your problem
Thanks for using Fixya..;-)

From your description the drive is clearly damaged and you will need data recovery help to save your data.

I recommend you try this guy first he operates remotely: http://FreeDataRecovery.us

If your data can not be saved remotely you will need to send it out to a recovery lab:
http://www.300dollardatarecovery.com/

First of all, this should be covered under warranty, so if there is a problem with the unit, I'd take it back.
Typically, USB devices do not like hot swapping ( unplugging without clicking on the device and stopping it), this may have caused the problem that you are experiencing.

Run chk disc by clicking on the drive icon in windows ( rightmouse click) and scan for errors, do the whole test for physical defects to be sure.

After that, I'd be inclined to download this and run a test on the drive: (freeware)
http://www.hdtune.com/

That will show if the drive is physically failing

Also, if you find you have lost, you can download and use this bit of freeware to recover files (there are others that may be better, but this should help)

http://datarecoverydownload.blogspot.com/

right click on my computer and choose manage.
computer management will appear.
go down to disk management
if you see your ego drive listed there
right click on it and choose change drive letter and paths
choose a drive letter that isn't in use like F or G.
you should now be able to browse or view the ego drive in my computer. or by going to run and type the drive letter you choose.

Yes you can replace the port, of you can see what hard drive is in the drive and get a new external holder/card for it and use it that way. either 2.5 inch sata or 3.5 inch sata,

i have the same garbage external and almost the same problem, only i get 3 blinks of death every 4 seconds...

you can cut and paste or just copy the media to the external hard drive. and copy it back if the data is ever lost from your computer, also you can have iTunes use the external hard drive to get media from. So you can free up valuable space on your pc's hard drive by just cut and pasting the iTunes folder to it.

you have to use an other HDD having OS on it... and attach other HDD and format it ..it will work!

The obvious answer is that the power supply is dead. If there is no external power supply connected then try connecting to an external powered usb hub. The drive is not getting power and the computer's USB power is not enough.

Mac can read a PC formatted drive but a PC cannot read one formatted by mac. So format the drive on the PC wiping all information on it, copy to it. Move the files to the MAC and reformat.

The obvious answer is that the power supply is dead. If there is no external power supply connected then try connecting to an external powered usb hub. The drive is not getting power and the computer's USB power is not enough.

Your Hard-drive is Crashed.