External HD - not recognized

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by SbUniT, Aug 9, 2012.

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  1. SbUniT

    SbUniT Registered Member

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2012
    Posts:
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    Location:
    Singapore
    Hi,

    I have a 500GB Exernal Hard Disc and have not been using it for a long while.
    I found it somwhere last weekend and tried it on my Mac, Dell, or network. None of them were able to read it successfully.

    The indication light was on. From the sound came out of the external HD, it sounds like it is working.

    I also tried switching th mini-USB cable but it did not work.

    I remember in the past, it always took a while to read this external HD and I used to use it for Mac Timemachine backup. Now i'm completely clueless how I should do to make it work again!

    Any advise? :'(
     
  2. tgell

    tgell Registered Member

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    Nov 12, 2004
    Posts:
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    If you do not need the info on the drive. Install Minitools Partition Wizard. Reboot with the drive connected and see if it detects your external drive. If it does, delete the partition(s), repartition the drive and if you are going to use it with Windows, format to NTFS, otherwise format to FAT32 if you plan on using it with a MAC or PC.

    http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html
     
  3. andyman35

    andyman35 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Nov 2, 2007
    Posts:
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    If tgell's suggestion doesn't work then remove the hard disk from the cradle and try directly installing it in your system.If you're able to access it then you can buy a replacement HDD cradle for a few pounds.
     
  4. bgoodman4

    bgoodman4 Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jan 13, 2009
    Posts:
    3,237
    Every so often I run into this sort of problem with one of my external drives and I find that if I assign a drive letter to the drive it corrects the problem. I used to know how to do this in years gone by but I now use Zentimo xStorage Manager and I can do this easily by simply right clicking on the unrecognized drive from within the Zentimo interface and selecting properties.

    There is a trial period so perhaps you can use it to correct your problem, who knows, you might just like it enough to pick up a licence. Great little program IMO but of course a search of the net will provide you with a way to fix this issue without it (if this is indeed the source of the problem that is).

    Here is a link to the publishers home page
    http://zentimo.com/
     
  5. littleturle

    littleturle Registered Member

    Joined:
    Jun 26, 2012
    Posts:
    102
    Location:
    US
    I have a 500GB Buffalo HD and it was not recognized either.
    I tried using my mac to repair the disc.
    however, it says it could not be repaired.
    i'm trying to figure a way to retrieve the data from the HD and then format it again and see if it works.

    Any recommedation on the data recovery app?
    for my particular case here, this is a 500GB on Mac system and thus i'm seeking a Mac app to do data recovery. the data is mostly time machine backups.

    it would be so much easier if it was a NTFS system and i know how to handle that one.
     
  6. tgell

    tgell Registered Member

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  7. claykin

    claykin Registered Member

    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2007
    Posts:
    132
    www.spinrite.com $90 but a great tool for your toolbox. I have made many unreadable drives readable again using Spinrite.
     
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