External drives / USB

[tamaranth]

I have an external drive (USB/Firewire) which seems to have died -- not showing up on Explorer, even after I run 'detect hardware' etc. Can anyone suggest test methods, ways of getting 100G of MP3s off it, etc?

Am starting to wonder if something is a bit screwy with the whole USB thing, as whether or not a USB device (camera, memory stick, PDA) appears can be rather random. I have 3 USB sockets, one of which supports a 4-socket USB hub of poor design.

All advice gratefully received.

Comments

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

Damn and blast! I wrote a long reply and it went into the ether.

Basically, there's hope that the drive is fine and it's just the USB interface that's fragged.

You need to take the drive out of it's box and connect it to an IDE and power cable inside your computer. If all goes well, you should see the data straight away.

Hopefully someone on your friends list who lives closer can help...

[latexiron.livejournal.com]

Take it to someone else's computer and see if it works on FireWire. Like mine?

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

Am starting to wonder if something is a bit screwy with the whole USB thing

If it's any consolation, I occasionally get this too. My "cure" is usually to unplug all the USB-connected devices, cycle them round the various ports, and if necessary reinstall the hardware. It's worked at least twice for me (and I have a 4-socket USB hub, too -- is yours a Belkin product?).

[miramon.livejournal.com]

Is the drive separately powered, or are you trying to run it off the USB connection? Generally you can only run one powered device off the USB power (and sometimes not even then). Alternatively, try it on a firewire machine. I have a dual drive (USB and PCMCIA) that no longer works with the USB connection but runs fine off the PCMCIA connection, so there is hope.

If it's an old drive, check if it requires special drivers, then try rebooting the PC with the drive as the only connected USB device (and it must be connected while the PC is booting). If this doesn't work, it's probably dead (do any lights show? can you hear the drive spin up or click?) but you might try finding someone with a Mac to see if they can detect it. Macs seem to be a bit happier about accepting strange devices, and will occasionally produce useful error messages which show that they realise there's a device there, they just refuse to have anything to do with it.