20 Most Recent SimpleTech SimpleDrive   STI-USB235/160 160 GB Hard Drive - Page 2 Questions & Answers

Most Techs on here blame the A/C adepter on these units to be a failure BUT. However I as of yet agree with there opinions to be FACT. Sure try a adapter but I feel its the usb/sata controller inside that has given out.

Most Simple tech external drives use Seagate or maxitor depending on what version , however these drive are extractable from the unit witch can be put in a free drive bay and thus the data can be worked off them now, if the drive is clicking called the click of death then your chances are neal on getting the data unless you take it to a data recovery center.

Hope this information does help

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Hello

Okay , so there are some steps to figure out what is wrong with your external.

Firstly , if your computer makes a sound when you plug in your external , go to Start-Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Computer Management-Disk Management , and see if your external drive is listed here with your local drives. If it is listed , right click on the drive and change the drive letter to make it appear in "my computer".

If your drive does not make a connection sound when connecting to your computer and also does not show up , please follow the next step.

Remove the hard drive from the casing if possible and install it in your computer case or another external case.If the drive works , the problem is with the casing and you can ignore the drive.

Now , if the problem is with the casing , there are still 3 possibilities.

1. The USB cable between the drive and the computer may be damaged.
2. The circuit board which connects your drive to the interface of the external may be blown.
3. The power supply (if applicable) may have a blown transformer.

The latter is the easiest to diagnose , does your external light up at all when you plug in the power? If not , then this is probably your problem. On the bottom of the adapter is a label which you will be able to use to have a new adapter made at your local electronics shop and this will cost about $30 max. They will also be able to test the adapter with a clamp meter to see if this is really the problem and this should be free.

The second component you want to test is the USB cable. If you have a printer , swop out the cables and see if your printer functions normally. Most externals use the same connector so you should be able to test it in this manner. If the cable works go on to the last step. If the cable is defective , replace it with a new one which you can find for about $10 at most electronics and chain stores.

The last component to test is the circuit board. This is a bit of a grey zone as you probably won't be able to spot the blown component unless it failed really badly. With the casing already opened , locate the external's circuit board and check to see if you have any blackened components or fluids leaking from some components. If all the other components of the external worked perfectly , then this is the faulty part. It is not really economical to replace the circuit as most of the time it is out of production by the time you need to replace it and it still costs a lot even if it is available so if your drive is working perfectly when connected via sata or IDE on your computer , the best is to buy a new casing and place your old drive in the new casing.

A casing costs about $50 and you could get it at most tech shops and big chain stores like Best Buy.

I hope this solves your problem and please reply if you need more help.

Kind Regards
Andrea

In applications find a folder called Utilities, in there find and select disk utility connect the simple drive and when it shows up in the left side of the window select it and there will an option to formatt it

Yes, you should turn the HD off when not in use. The direct drive mechanism is constantly turning when current is applied. Turning off the unit will preserve it. Four years is quite a long time for a hard drive and may need replacement soon.

go to simptec site and try to expean you rproblem they will help

there site is

http://www.simpletech.com/commercial/products/simpledriveexternalpininfarina.html

You might try here: http://www.retrevo.com/samples/Simpletech-Storage-manuals.html

you can get the driver at the products web site

After some of your entries, I had an idea to switch power cables because I have two SimpleTech drives. The other drive was working fine. When I connected the other power cable to the drive that was having the problem it fired up like a charm. I tried the bad cable to my good working drive and the same problem occurred. Wow! It's nice to know it was only the power plug. How do I order anothr power cable but both drives are working. This is great! I have my valuable data back.

Thanks....

No. It is not that way. how it is read is as under: 1 K is 1024 bytes 1 MB is 1024 K bytes 1 GB is 1024 MB 1 TB is 1024 GB. As per books. BUT, when it comes to selling HDDs 1 TB is 1000,000,000,000 bytes. the extra 24 bytes at each lelvel have been overlooked. Thats where you loose so much of disk space.

How long did you wait. I bet it's fragmented all to heck and just takes a while to read all the data.

If it was running at the time it fell, the heads crashed into the platters, and the buzzing you're hearing is the dents left in the platters spinning by 7200 times a second.
Not good. Likely will need a professional service to recover the data.

scan your harddriver for errors
chkdsk hard_drive /f /r

Try unplugging all your power supply of your desktop or if you have a laptop, take out the battery and the power plug. Leave it unplugged for about 25 mins, plug the power supply back in and insert your storage device.

if that did not work, try putting it in another usb slot, then try plugging the hard drive into another computer and see if it works.

If the other computer works, theres will problem with your power supply on the orignial computer.

If it doesn't the problem is with your usb hard drive, so read the install/repair manual that came with it.

Try connecting it to a different computer, it the problems occurs on a different computer then it is most likely the Simpledrive.
The next thing I would try is to test the power adapter (if it has one and not it is internal) with a multimeter, check the output voltage (the voltage is printed on the label on the adapter) it should be slightly higher than the label's voltage.
Try another compatible adapter and see if this solves your problem.
If it is not hte adapter then it is the USB electronics in the unit is faulty, the hard drive in the unit would be OK.
You could buy a new USB hard drive case adapter and transfer your hard drive to this case and you will have an exernal hard drive again.
OR
Borrow an USB hard drive adapter first to test your hard drive before you buy a new USB hard drive case.

A Purchased Externa HD should be formatted for PC 32bit therefore readable univerally in any PC system but it will not read in a Mac. The would have to be formatted for Mac and will then only read in a Mac. So you decided where you want the drive to go .PC or Mac and we will take it from there

since when did this problem start?
have you checked the cables?

Hi, sounds like your board on the hard drive is gone, only thing you can do is get a old hard drive the same and take the board off there and replace it, or send it away to the maxtor, western digital etc depending the make and they can take your photos off for a price aint sure how much. All the best John

You may not see any icon on desktop but should see "found new hardware" at the bottom right by the time. Right click My Computer and click Manage. Under Storage click Disk Management. You should find your drive here. If its a new drive, no letter may be assigned or it may not be partitioned or formatted yet. Right click on the drive to format it and to assign a drive letter. If its already formatted and works on other computers, let me know because it could be a USB error or faulty cable.