problem with my external Seagate hard drive

stroyer · 07-16-2009, 03:01 PM

I have a 320 GB Seagate external hard drive that is not working. I have had my external hard drive for about 8 months and have been using it with a 7 month old Toshiba laptop with windows vista 64 bit, a 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM. Now to explain my issue with my external hard drive, at first my external hard drive was working fine with no problems at all and then it seemed to suddenly go bad. At first when I plug it in to my computer it will not be recognized and then after I open any program that uses it, it will than show up. But if I try to double click any file on it, it will say (Not Responding) at the top. The same thing happens to any program I try to scan the hard drive with such as System Mechanic and AVG. The only things I know that I have done is leaving my external hard drive sitting on top of my closed lap top over night (with my laptop on) and have kept it plugged in for long amounts of time. I don’t know what the problem could be. Could somebody please tell me what this could be? and how this could be fixed?

**kev1952** · 07-17-2009, 08:40 AM

Could be a fault in the electronics of the external box or a problem with your USB ports. The latter is easily checked by plugging in another USB device and seeing if it works. Is the external drive powered via USB or it's own power supply? As both the external drive and the laptop are both less than 12 months old both should be covered under warranty.

stroyer · 07-18-2009, 12:06 AM

I have tried all three USB ports on my lap top...It is not a problem with my computer (I have even tried my external on another computer and the same thing happens)...as for your question on how it is powered, that would be from the lap top’s power...I know the files are there for sure, my only issue really is knowing what could be wrong and maybe an idea on how to fix it...I tried to use the freezer trick but it did not really help (but it did not hurt either)... yes my external is under a 3 year warranty...it’s not the drive that is of great importance...it is the files on it that are my true concern...if there is any way that works to get these back( other than paying $1,500) I would like to know. Thank you very much…any help would be appreciated.

**raptor_pa** · 07-18-2009, 08:05 AM

Easiest solution is to use "partition find and mount" - scan the drive for the partition table and then copy the data out to another drive, reformat and copy the data back. you could try test_disk but it has mixed results on USB connections since USB doesn't pass all the commands and protocols needed to properly work on a drive at lower levels. Can you feelt he drive spin up? Does it make any clisking noises?

stroyer · 07-19-2009, 08:32 PM

There is no clicking noise at all...the drive spins up just fine and makes the same sound it always has. Is there a way to slave an external drive and if so would it work better to scan the drive this way? Just thought I would ask.

**raptor_pa** · 07-19-2009, 09:16 PM

Inside the external enclosure is a standard drive, just pull the drive out of the encolsure and mount it internally, slave if it is IDE, or just use another SATA port - SATA has no Master Slave settings since each drive has it's own port. Definitely the preferred way to scan and recover the disk. USB connection does not allow all the low level commands and protocols to pass to the drive.

07-16-2009, 03:01 PM	#1 (permalink)
stroyer Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 3 OS: vista	problem with my external Seagate hard drive I have a 320 GB Seagate external hard drive that is not working. I have had my external hard drive for about 8 months and have been using it with a 7 month old Toshiba laptop with windows vista 64 bit, a 320 GB hard drive, 4 GB RAM. Now to explain my issue with my external hard drive, at first my external hard drive was working fine with no problems at all and then it seemed to suddenly go bad. At first when I plug it in to my computer it will not be recognized and then after I open any program that uses it, it will than show up. But if I try to double click any file on it, it will say (Not Responding) at the top. The same thing happens to any program I try to scan the hard drive with such as System Mechanic and AVG. The only things I know that I have done is leaving my external hard drive sitting on top of my closed lap top over night (with my laptop on) and have kept it plugged in for long amounts of time. I don’t know what the problem could be. Could somebody please tell me what this could be? and how this could be fixed? Last edited by stroyer; 07-16-2009 at 03:05 PM.

07-17-2009, 08:40 AM	#2 (permalink)
kev1952 TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Townsville, Australia Posts: 1,007 OS: Win Vista Home Premium	Re: problem with my external Seagate hard drive Could be a fault in the electronics of the external box or a problem with your USB ports. The latter is easily checked by plugging in another USB device and seeing if it works. Is the external drive powered via USB or it's own power supply? As both the external drive and the laptop are both less than 12 months old both should be covered under warranty. __________________ Cheers.... Kev *"The Definition of an Upgrade: Take old bugs out, put new ones in."* Please don't send me PM's for support. Post in the forums for everyone to benefit.

07-18-2009, 12:06 AM	#3 (permalink)
stroyer Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 3 OS: vista	Re: problem with my external Seagate hard drive I have tried all three USB ports on my lap top...It is not a problem with my computer (I have even tried my external on another computer and the same thing happens)...as for your question on how it is powered, that would be from the lap top’s power...I know the files are there for sure, my only issue really is knowing what could be wrong and maybe an idea on how to fix it...I tried to use the freezer trick but it did not really help (but it did not hurt either)... yes my external is under a 3 year warranty...it’s not the drive that is of great importance...it is the files on it that are my true concern...if there is any way that works to get these back( other than paying $1,500) I would like to know. Thank you very much…any help would be appreciated.

07-18-2009, 08:05 AM	#4 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,883 OS: XP	Re: problem with my external Seagate hard drive Easiest solution is to use "partition find and mount" - scan the drive for the partition table and then copy the data out to another drive, reformat and copy the data back. you could try test_disk but it has mixed results on USB connections since USB doesn't pass all the commands and protocols needed to properly work on a drive at lower levels. Can you feelt he drive spin up? Does it make any clisking noises? __________________

07-19-2009, 08:32 PM	#5 (permalink)
stroyer Registered User Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 3 OS: vista	Re: problem with my external Seagate hard drive There is no clicking noise at all...the drive spins up just fine and makes the same sound it always has. Is there a way to slave an external drive and if so would it work better to scan the drive this way? Just thought I would ask.

07-19-2009, 09:16 PM	#6 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,883 OS: XP	Re: problem with my external Seagate hard drive Inside the external enclosure is a standard drive, just pull the drive out of the encolsure and mount it internally, slave if it is IDE, or just use another SATA port - SATA has no Master Slave settings since each drive has it's own port. Definitely the preferred way to scan and recover the disk. USB connection does not allow all the low level commands and protocols to pass to the drive. __________________