Computer Won't Recognize External Usb Hard Drive Anymore

I have a Seagate portable hard drive which is no longer being recognized by my computer. It is model #1K9AP2-502. When I plug it into a USB port I can hear the standard noise when a USB device is recognized but the drive never shows up. I have tried plugging it into 3 different computers each running a different OS. One is running Windows XP, a Windows 7 machine and a computer running an old version of Ubuntu. At this point it sounds like the hard drive may be toast but I am really hoping someone has a solution for me. This drive has all of my music on it which is over 500GB so I'm pretty upset if I lose it all. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

To rule out the above, can you remove the HDD from it's enclosure and put it in a different (preferably new) enclosure?

 

Also try a different cable connector just in case there is an issue with that.

 

It's a sealed enclosure. I can try to pry it open with a screwdriver but not sure if I'll be able to get another one that the drive would fit in.

 

Unfortunately, the connector that plugs into the portable drive seems to be a special shape that I haven't seen before but I'll see if it's something I can replace. Thanks

 

I've got a Western Digital USB drive that has a proprietary USB interface as part of the drive's PC board. You won't be able to use another enclosure if your Seagate is the same.

 

I own 6 WD portable hard drives. My cables look like this
https://www.amazon.com/EZOPower-Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External/dp/B00I0R12PM

 

USB3 'A' on one end. My passport has this. Cheap cable to get and try another. Note - USB 'B' has the sections reversed on the usb3 end, left to right. Get the proper one.

 

Plodr's linked to cable is micro on the "B" end. Standard USB 3.0 "B" looks like this:

 

When you have the drive attached could you open Disk Management and let me know what it says...

s.

 

Try these steps-
Plug your removable drive into your computer.
Press Windows Key + R, type diskmgmt.msc into the Run dialog, and press Enter.
You should see your external drive listed in the Disk Management window. It doesn't matter if its showing on your computer window.
Following this process should solve most of the disk recognition issues you’ll encounter. Let me know if this works.

 

Most of the common fixes are already discussed in this thread. One which might solve all your problem is by
trying to reassign a drive letter to the hard drive. I hope this works for you.

 

David_ Johnson26, you can't reassign a letter to a drive that doesn't appear as the first poster said

It has to appear somewhere, either in My Computer, Disk Management or Device Manager to be able to assign or change a drive letter.

Since the poster hasn't appeared since Feb. 4th, I think he/she has stopped reading any suggestions.

 

This seems to be a common problem. No advice except that you should have backed up your music. It takes
two separate storage devices/locations for your music to be backed up. Even then, it's unlikely for you to lose it all.
There are data recovery companies that do simple to complex recovery. Yours would be simple.

I bought a new MyPassport Western Digital USB external hard drive, and right out of the box, the computer would always take
over a minute to recognize it. A month later neither a Windows 7 nor Windows 10 machine would recognize it at all. The drive was
never banged up, and the cord never damaged. I bought a new USB external hard drive made by Apple consistent with Windows 7 and
Windows 10, but it wasn't recognized by my Windows 7 nor my Sisters Window's 10.

I know that sometimes my Windows 7 machine gets confused on drive letters. For a short 10 minutes, a Powershell script
on the external USB F drive was misreporting that it was being run from the internal hard disk's E-drive partition. Then
it automatically corrected itself. A repair disk called my F drive the H drive. (F drive was the only thing plugged in)

 

If you can get the disk out of the enclosure you may try another USB 'bridging' device without the need for a second enclosure (a 'bare drive' interface)
Alternatively you could open your PC, and put the drive in as an 'internal' drive, avoiding USB altogether.
If the actual disk is "toast" neither of these methods will do any good of course; they only rule out power failure or a failure of the SATA (presumably) <-> USB conversion electronics inside the Seagate enclosure.
Have you contacted Seagate on this issue ?

Dumb_Question
27.February.2017

 

This could be the motherboard does not supply enough power to run the drive. I have also seen an issue with front mounted USB (aux. ports) on some systems. Use the USB ports on the back of the computer (the ones directly connected to the motherboard) and the unit works. Also a power issue.