Old Quantum IDE Drive (85 meg)

SOURCE: My Computer does not show: Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500 GB external USB hard drive

Try freezing it. It sounds crazy, but hear me out... When I got the advice to freeze it, they said freezing also works when a drop causes premature crashing due to hardware failure. I'm a novice, but know enough to be dangerous, so I scrounged the internet trying to find a fix when this happened to me two weeks ago. Mine didn't fall, but started clicking due to hardware malfunction. I was devastated because of course I was too dumb (and cheap) to buy a second hard drive to back up the data on my first one. Lesson learned. Anyway, data recovery was 3 grand or more and I can't afford that so I took the advice of a bunch of people and tried the crazy idea of putting the dumb thing in the freezer. I took the case off using instructions I found on the web and then wrapped it in a white flour sack cloth to absorb moisture and put it in a ziplock in the freezer. After 24 hours freezing I tried again, nothing but obnoxious clicking. Going into Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Device Manager I could see the drive but it said there were no partitions. Windows Explorer wouldn't assign a drive letter. I threw it back in the freezer for 10 days and on a whim last night tried again. The USB 2.0 port on my XP computer is broken and everyone told me not to use Vista if I could help it. So I took a USB hub and plugged it into my USB 1.1 port and then plugged the new hard drive in first and let it boot up. Then I took the frozen hard drive and plugged it in too and I was SHOCKED when Autoplay started running. Maybe the drivers and software from the good drive allowed the bad one to boot up. I don't know. I just know that it didn't work plugged in directly to the USB but it did via the hub good drive first.... Anyway, I have cords running out of the freezer into my laptop which is perched on a chair outside the freezer. I got all my pictures and priceless data off this drive overnight. It did stop a few times (says it can't find the file and the drive stops spinning) and I was able to unplug it, plug it back in and get it going again. It is SLOWER THAN MOLASSES and I would strongly suggest prioritizing your stuff so you get the most important data first because you don't know how long it will run, but I am thrilled beyond belief I got my pictures and home movies back. People told me I was crazy and stupid for freezing a hard drive, but it worked for me so I'm not going to question it. My data is on the new hard drive which I am immediately going to back up onto a second and I will live happily ever after because I didn't need to spend thousands to get my data back. Good luck!

SOURCE: Quantum Fireball Lct20 20 GB

Hi,

Appreciate the direct "Ask Me".

A 20Gb Quantum Fireball LCT20 could be nearing its life end considering the length of time it has been in service. Perhaps what could be done is to perform a burn-in test on the 20Gb HD attaches as a Slave or Secondary on a 2nd PC or alternately, as an external mass storage device through an IDE to USB adapter. Burn-in test would be a multiple time scanning fro errors as those used by Norton Disk Doctor. Alternately, you can also Partition Magic to partition/format and eventually test the HD.

In your concern of PC slow down after 10 minutes, it is possible that:

• the HD is slowing after some time or having difficulty searching for the called for system files;
• heat related, either on the HD motor/bearings or even on the CPU (thermal throttling);
• there are a number of software running in the background using the PC's memory;
• presence of virus and/or malicious software.

SOURCE: Western Digital 500gig External Harddrive. Power up troubles.

this is a bit tricky , you'll need to tell my what operating system you have ,

more than likely sounds like windows power management is turning the drive off

check your power management settings.

if thats not the case just let me know.

shalom

SOURCE: new hard drive not recognized on my mac

I figure it is a compatible drive (eg, either a PATA or SATA drive, depending on what your Mac uses). I don't know a whale of a lot about Macs, but I know that when you add a second hard drive, especially if you are using a PATA (uses the wide ribbon cable), one drive needs to be jumpered and cabled as "master", and the second drive as a "slave". If the XP drive was the only one in the box, it was likely jumpered as a master.

How to fix it? Look on the drive itself, and it should have a small diagram telling you how to set the jumpers (usually located next to the power connector on the drive). Set the add-on as a slave, and give it a whirl.

Also, don't be surprised if you have to re-format the drive. I doubt that a Mac uses a Win compatible structure.

Cheers
Nick

SOURCE: hard drive not recognized

hi I am using Hitachi external hard disk with aluminum case. When I connect my hard disk with my PC it is not recognizing my hard disk. I want retrive my data from the hard disk please let me know the solutions.

Thanks,
K.Venki