my external hard drive fell about two feet on to a computer tower and now my computer doesn't recognize it. It makes the little ping sound when I plug the usb in to the computer but nothing happens after that. I had a ton of information- pics, movies, school work, and music stored onto it. I tried hooking it up to a laptop as well with the same results. I think it may have been in use when it fell because my girlfriend is the one who was using it at the time when it got knocked over because she forgot it was hooked to her laptop and pulled it down to its death...???.. The light still comes on the hard drive when I plug it in to an outlet if that helps the diagnosis at all. thanks for whatever help that can be given
I had an external hard drive that stopped working. The light would come on but it woldn't make any sound. I opened up the casing and found that there was just an internal bay hard drive in there hooked up to its own power and data ribbon - and the rest of the hardware was to let it communicate over the usb port. (Makes sense.) I just unplugged the hard drive from the assembly, took off the little pin that made the drive a master instead of a slave, and added it as an internal drive to my computer. I was very pleased when it worked like a champ and I could get to all my data again. So I guess the question is whether your hard drive is damaged or just the external assembly.
exactly. external hadr drives are just hard drives in a casing set up so they don't get erased thanks to static electricity and are portable. I've even seen articles on how to make your own. So I would ground myself, and then attempt to open and take a look inside.
Oh yeah, forgot about the grounding part. Thanks. I usually touch the computers power supply to discharge before I mess with any components. I probably need to invest in one of those wrist straps.
