Hard Disk Totally Dead

[gabriel_409]

Hello,

I have a Maxtor 5000Le 80GB external unit. I am running Windows XP Pro. I've had this unit for years and it has been great. About a month ago my computer locked when booting and after checking out all my external hardware, I found out that this unit had caused the problem. It seemed that the usb port or the cable was the problem. When I unplugged the usb, plugged it into another port, and even replugged it into the original port all of a sudden it started working again. It has been working fine since then until today. . . Now the problem is: . . . . Windows boots just fine. . it just doesn't recognize this external hard drive at all. The hard drive is not making any noise at all, the green light on the unit is turned on showing that the unit is powered up. . .just no noise. I tried it with a new usb cord and still nothing. It's like an internal switch is out or maybe the internal usb connector on the unit is damaged or something. Please help. This unit has years and years of information in it and I really need to be able to get to it.

Thank you,

[nitroshift]

Try plugging it as slave in a pc and boot up.

[connor_us65]

Did you try to open your external box with a drive, and connect your drive directly to your computer (slave it) if you'll see it in windows, that means problem with a box

if you still wont see drive in windows, that means problem with a drive.

Also, if you are saying drive isn't making any noise, make sure it’s spinning up

listen to the box when you press power button. And unfortunately if you still face problems then I guess you must contact a data recovery Lab. One I know is SAlvageData Recovery Lab INC, an ISO 9001 company and here is the address of the lab: -76 Progress Drive, Corporate Park, and Stamford, CT 06902. My friend has faced dangerous problems regarding data recovery and we have seen how this lab has given best result and recovered data. You can also. May be this will help.

[gamehead200]

Have you tried using it in another computer? If it's not the drive causing the problem, or the enclosure, then it's either a driver malfunction or a faulty USB card.

[Jeremy]

Why do 3 people ask the same question?

[puntoMX]

I was thinking... but I go with nitroshift post.

gabriel_409,

If you need help let us know how. nitroshift gave you the hint but as far as I can read you are pritty new with hardware. If you don´t know how to set the drive to SLAVE then just leave it like it is now and use the cable from your CD-ROM drive, disconnect it from the CD-ROM drive and connect it to your Harddisk drive that you took out of the external box. No need to set jumpers, just make sure you use the powerconnector too .

[nmX.Memnoch]

Why do 3 people ask the same question?

Haha...I almost said the same thing...

[gamehead200]

Why do 3 people ask the same question?

Same question, different explanations for what might be wrong!