20 Most Recent Hitachi 500GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive Questions & Answers

use hp format tool its free to download

I have had the same problem with Vista and win 7 with USB connection. Using it with XP its perfect. what operating system are you using?

Hi there,
Remove it and install it into another computer to see what'll happen.
If it shows up in 'my computer' as a drive letter(like E: drive) but you can't access it,you can recover data on it with data recovery program to avoid losing them.
I have succeed with Tenorshare data recovery. It can recover data after deeply scanning your hard drive to look for lost data due to drives crash and 'not recognized' issue.You can get it here: http://www.any-data-recovery.com/index.htm
After you recover your data,you can format it to check out whether it can be fixed.
If the hard drive can't be detected,you can try this way.Put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in the freezer overnight. Then while it's still cold plug it into the computer and you may be able to view it in 'my computer'. And run the recovery program to recover your data on it.
If it fails, you will have to go to a recovery office but let's hope not because it will cost you a lot of money and whether they can recover data is not guaranteed.
This article will help.
How To Recover Lost Data From Crashed Hard Drive?
http://tenorsharedatarecovery.blogspot.com/how-to-recover-lost-data-from-crashed.html

A lot of things that you purchase before new technology comes out, or before a new operating system comes out won't work on the new stuff. Your drive probably does work on win8 though. Do you open windows explorer to see the new drive letter?

it will cost you about $ 74

Hi there
I dont know if this will work for you but looking on the web I came accross someone who had a similar problem they fixed it as follows.
They installed Tweak UI and then
She was able to get the drive recognized using "Tweak UI", clicking on My Computer, Drives,and check marking Drive F. It did the trick.
Hope this helps software link for you


http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/tweakui

if it is clicking or not whirring it is broken if not go to control panel,system,disk management the see if you see it there and format it to NTFS hope this helps =]!

Just plug it into your computer, go into your desktop and click on My Computer, find the external drive that you plugged in, right click on it and scroll down to format, please keep in mind that all data will be lost once you start formatting drive. Let me know if this solved the problem and good luck..

If your computer or laptop has a problem detecting a USBhard drive or a USB device, and another computer can detect it, then theproblem could be a RF interference problem. Try using an USB cable that is a shielded USB cable (ie. AnUSB cable that has a clear plastic covering and you can see a metallic weavewhich covers the wires) OR a USB cable that has a Ferrite core attached to theUSB cable (the ferrite core is a cylindrical object approximately 30mm long X15mm diameter and it is attached to the USB cable near the connector).

mine this same, what to do?

depending on your operating system this may vary in windows7 click start control panel you should see system security tab in that back up then windows will ask for a back up DESTINATION location you can select either dvd or another device or in XP click start all programs accessories system tools you should see back up after the back up finishes windows will tell you your computer back up was successfull also you could right click on the back up file select properties this will tell you how many GB were used hope this helps

Make sure you are not connecting with a usb hub, connect directly to a port on your pc. Then reboot and check in my computer and see if it shows up. Feel free to ask me any other questions, Thanks for using FixYa

Depending on your version of Windows, you may need to update the drivers on your computer. http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/drivers.htm This website gives drivers for various Hitachi hard drives, depending on your operating system.

If its making a clicking sound it has probably died by now. We call that the click of death!

You can try running a disc check or defragmenting the drive. As time goes on hard drives can develop fragmentation from deleting files and defragmenting can clear this up. Hard drives can also develop damaged sectors which running a disc check can clear up.