PersonaUser314

OK, here's the problem.

I've been in possession of a LaCie 500GB Hi-speed USB 2.0 external hard drive for about 10 months or so. There's been no issue with it at all until today. I plugged the USB cable into my laptop and get a little popup bubble from Windows saying something to the effect of:
"Windows does not recognize the USB device attatched to this computer."

Looking in My Computer shows that the device fails to appear. Clicking on the popup bubble shows that the device is listed as 'Unknown device'.

I've checked the USB ports themselves with a different USB pen drive, and found that the problem is not with them, as each time the pen drive registers. Checking the status of each individual port shows them all working corrctly.

I've done a restart of the computer and the device still registers as 'Unknown', I've plugged the device into another computer, it is unknown there as well.

As far as I can tell, the problem isn't with the power supply to the device. The green light on the side is on (the HD is plugged into the mains electric supply) and the device is audibly working.

(One thing to mention, the status box shows; 'There are no drivers installed for this device.' As far as I know, none were ever installed, but if this is a problem of needing a driver, I'd appreciate being shown where to aquire the driver I need. I'd also apologize for not knowing that the problem was not with the device, but the lack of driver.)

I'm at my wits end here. I've got about 200 gigs of music/videos/work for college/e.t.c on there that I really need access to. I'm asking if there is anyone who can help, or even give an indication as to what the problem might be here. Checking on LaCie's website has proved unhelpful and all of you on here are literally the only people I can turn to.

I can provide any information about software/hardware about the laptop if needed (though I'm somewhat computer illiterate, so would need directions on how to access any info).

Any help at all is much appreciated.

grimx133

Try testdisk like in the sticky in the hard drive forum.
Have you "lost" a hard drive, partition or files in your computer?

Results can be mixed with the hard drive in the enclosure and connected via usb. You may have to remove the drive and connect it directly internally in a desktop.

I'll see if one of the mods can move this to hard drives.

PersonaUser314

I've downloaded testdisk, but the External HD doesn't show up on the list of drives to analyze, only the internal harddrive of the laptop shows up.

What would be required in connecting the drive directly to a desktop? And, if possible, would there be anything other than that I can do? I'm sharing a laptop with someone else you see, so I can't really go taking it apart unless it's a last resort.

raptor_pa

If it is a 2.5 inch IDE drive you will need an adapter to the desktop IDE cable, if it is a SATA drive it will connect directly to the SATA port and power in a desktop.