SimpleTech Simpledrive - Recent Questions, Troubleshooting & Support - Page 5

Hello Anonymous Make sure you have backed up all the files you need to keep. Store them on the computer if you have the space... until you put them back on the clean Hard Drive. Your drive would be seven years old now. So... it would be a wise move to do a security type format to test the drives integrity before you loose your backups. Many Drives don't last seven years... 320GB is also pretty small these days. Suggest you use the old drive for eg. "Movies" and buy a new Hard Drive for your Backups as this drive may fail at any time. Murphy's Law says that will be when you need it the most! A 3.5 inch Drive (uses 5v&12v) and is more robust & faster than your 2.5" pocket type drives that run on 5 volts only. Also, look for a USB 3 or FireWire Port connector as these will ensure compatibility & speed on future computers. USB 1&2 are slow on large files. DeFragging only shuffles the empty space around. Lining it up sequentially so that it's faster at accessing the data. Re Formatting wipes the directory off the drive making it appear that you have a new clean drive. Previous files then get overwritten. Do a security erase if you want to clean all data from the drive & test the drive for faults. This will return all available space available to you as an empty drive. On a Mac, use Disk Utility. Choose Fat32 to allow interchangeability with Mac <> PC or "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" for Mac Bootable Disks. On a PC use Disk Management for a quick format to Fat32 or NTFS for Windows Boot. Or See Here for full details: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/f/format-hard-drive.htm Drives are so inexpensive these days. You can pick up a 1Terrabyte drive for $99 here. Format & test the drive before putting it to use on your computer. This will be one of the few times you will get to test & experiment with the drive before you put your data on it. You can always use a USB Memory Stick as a pretend Hard Drive to experiment with & test the formatting procedure. They use the same Partition & Format utilities as a regular Hard Drive. Cheers Trevor Was this Helpful .......Then give me a tick of approval

Is it formatted as NTFS? What OS on the PC? What program did you download since it should not be required? Sounds like the drive is broken or the cable. Does the power light on the drive light up?

This device is supplied with a USB 2.0 "Y" cable. It requires two USB plugs on the PC; one for data, the other for power. You cannot toss this cable aside and use a regular USB cable because it gets it power from the PC. There is no battery to charge.

data may be hidden in your drive due to viruses. for windows Xp, follow thes steps

1. From my computer menu bar click on tools
2. then click folder option
3. in view TAb click on show hidden files and folders
4. scroll down the list of view TAb
5. uncheck the option "Hide protected operating system files (recommended)"
6. after this check your driver. there might be some file and folders

Use to below link to download the software <<ACTIVE KILL DISK>> http://software.lsoft.net/KillDiskSuiteFree-Setup.exe this software can erase all the data from the drive. be ware that kill not means actual killing. just kill the data

Windows 7 has a driver site. You need to go to your specific brand of computer/laptop and search drivers for it running with win 7. Here is a generic driver for win 7

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

open the hard disk casing remove the drive check it on some other casing

Does the external drive work correctly when connected to any other computer?
If not, then it has "died".
It might be possible to open the SimpleDrive case, extract the disk-drive,
and connect it as a "slave" disk-drive in some computer, to see if the "bare" disk-drive can be read.

I don't know what you're asking about but if you need a power adapter you can find them cheaply online by searching google or yahoo etc. for the particular brand you need. There are tons of dealers out there with quality reconfigured, rebuilt and even new adaptors for very low prices. Good luck!

If it is the hard drive that is clicking, you have a dead hard drive.

Delete unneeded files to make room.