Freecom 400GB HDD will not appear

Since earlier this evening, my Freecom 400GB external hard drive (bought in 2007) will not appear in my list of hard drives, so I cannot access the very important files I have saved there. I am running Windows XP and the Freecom unit has always worked fine until now.

I have tried all the usual things such as checking the USB cable is connected, switched the power on and off, rebooted my laptop, etc but nothing seems to work. There does not appear to be anything wrong with the hard drive itself, though who knows?

Any other suggestions?

Edit: I don't see it anywhere in 'Computer Management' either i.e. not under 'Device Manager', 'Disk Management', 'removable Storage' etc

 

Try unplugging the drive from the computer and plugging it back in so it can be redetected.

 

Thanks abekl, but I have already tried that repeatedly. It doesn't work.

I am baffled. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the hard drive; I turn it on, it lights up, the hard disk inside is clearly moving (I can feel it), the USB plug appears to be undamaged.

Could the problem be with my laptop instead?

 

Greetings, MacGuffin.

Have you tried detecting the drive while in Safe Mode? Maybe some 3rd-party software is preventing Windows from seeing the drive.

And, do you have access to another computer? You could always try plugging the external into another machine to verify.

 

OMG I tried it again this afternoon and amazingly...it worked! But only for a while. My laptop 'saw' the external hard drive and I was able to open a spreadsheet from it.

However, when I tried to save my changes, the spreadsheet file could not be found i.e. my laptop could not see the hard drive any longer. I wasn't able to save the spreadsheet to my laptop either.

So...I'll try detecting the hard drive from Safe mode, as Caliban suggested. Any other tips welcome.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196

 

Hi Caliban,

I tried Safe Mode but Windows couldn't see the drive then either.

 

Thanks plodr - I tried running this but it couldn't see the external hard drive I am having trouble with either. The fix you suggested seems to be intended for CD/DVD Reading and Writing, not external hard drives.

 

Good morning.

That seems to be a key symptom.

Do you happen to have a flash drive (thumb drive) available? If so, you might try connecting it to the same port that you've been using for the Freecom drive, see if you can duplicate the symptoms - this might verify the port's integrity.

Which leads to another obvious question: have you tried a different USB port?

Frankly, though, I'm leaning towards a failing/failed drive. Sure would be nice if you could connect it to another machine to verify.

 

Good afternoon,

I tried all three USB ports with a flash drive and all three ports are working. I also just tried all three USB ports with the HDD itself and it worked on all three ports.

So yes, it looks like a failing HDD rather than it being anything wrong with my laptop. I haven't done enough testing to say for sure, but the HDD appears to work fine (for a while) when it is first turned on, but then goes on to fail after a while. Would it be overheating or something?

I guess I will move the important files off the HDD and save them online. I need something to store my downloaded films and music on, though, so it's a shame that I will need to buy a new HDD unless I can figure out a way to repair this one.

 

I just visited the Freecom website and there are firmware updates available - what's the model #, etc. of your drive? It's possible that an update may address the problem if this is not an overheating issue or drive failure.

 

It's a Freecom 400GB hard drive, Product Number 28147 (UK), Product Code PSOAAD.

It's no longer listed on their website as far as I can see. I bought it in 2007.

It's a shame because although it's got small capacity by today's standards, it is more than enough for my needs.

I guess I have learned my lesson - keep important files online, and just use the external hard drives for downloads.

 

Yeah, online storage is too expensive for big files, but it's certainly the way to go for documents, etc.

One other thing you might try (just in case this is a Windows issue) is to boot to a live Linux environment, see if you can pull the data from the drive that way. If you decide to try that and need any help, let us know.

 

Hi MacGuffin,

I was doing some research online and found your posts. I hope you're still about.

I have a similar problem with the same Freecome 400GB HD, also purchassed in the UK and would like to know how it all ended for you.

At the moment I feel like you did "guess I have learned my lesson - keep important files online, and just use the external hard drives for downloads".

It also looks like a mechanical failure but for me it starts almost normally, the disc turns and the light comes on; it shows my files when I access it. However as soon as I try to open one of the folders the Hard Drive starts making a clicking noise which sounds like a mechanical failure and the light at the front flashes sporadically.

I've contacted Freecome who got back to me with a bit of a desapointing but probably expected answer: "Sounds like the HDD itself has failed inside the unit With the drive being out of warranty your best option would beto open the unit & remove the HDD You could then try it fitted isdie a desktop PC, if the drive is still clicking there you would need to contact a data recovery company to get the data of the drive"...

I replied that I understood the HD might not be under warranty anymore but that I purchased this product because I wanted to back-up my data and was told it was reliable. I never thought it could suddenly fail.

I was also hoping that they might be able to provide a specific diagnostic software for the brand in order to test the driver before endeavouring any further.

And as last resort would there be a data recovery company authorised by Freecom?

I hope to hear further...

 

Go into Computer, right-click the C: drive and select Properties. Under the Hardware tab you will see a list of storage devices. Does it give a Freecom model number for the Freecom drive, or does it give the HD's model number itself?

For example your main HD may be model STxxx or WDCxxx for Seagate or Western Digital brand HD. Now, the freecom drive has someone else's brand HD inside. I want to know if it shows in the list as Freecomxxx or if you have an entry for another manufacturer like WDC or ST or Hitachi where you were expecting Freecom.

 

Greetings, MrWriter, and welcome to MajorGeeks...

Don't know if MacGuffin is still around or not...

1. The fact that you are able to 'see' the data leads me to believe that the data may not be corrupt, and that the data may indeed be salvageable...

2. A couple of data recovery labs you might try contacting are Data Savers and Ontrack, both of which offer free estimates - if nothing else, you can get an idea about how much it'll cost you to have a forensics lab break down the platters and copy the data...

Have you tried mounting the drive in a desktop and accessing it as a slave device?

*****

Oops! Sorry, sach2 - didn't see you there!

 

Thanks Both,

Sach2 you're right it says Samsung HD400LD USB Device.

Caliban I will try and let you know.

 

Nothing for now but running different diagnostic softwares. Apparently there aren't any issue with the driver needing updating etc. I found some more useful information on here http://www.advanceddatarecovery.co.uk/samsung.html:
"Samsung hard drives are well-known for their factory firmware problems. Factory Firmware is stored on the disk platters in the so-called System (Service) Area of the hard disk. If one of the disk modules becomes corrupted the whole hard disk micro-operating system can't boot up, the drive cannot initialise correctly and thus stops working. If you attempt to boot up from such a Samsung hard drive or read any data from it you would get "Disk boot failure. Insert system disk and press enter" or "Primary Master Hard Disk Fail" or "No operating system found" or "USB Device malfunctioned" error or "S.M.A.R.T. Capable But Command Failed" or some other BIOS error. Currently there is no way to fix this type of firmware corruption at home. It is quite a complicated procedure and requires use of specialised expensive equipment and deep knowledge of hard drive design and data recovery technology."

so I'm preparing to take my wallet out...

 

Reading again, I think you should go with Caliban's advice and open the freecom USB case, remove the HD and attach it to a desktop as a slave drive to a working OS. Then try to copy whatever you can to to the desktop's HD. This would eliminate the USB connection and give you a better chance of copying the files.

I was originally looking for diagnostic utilities for the Samsung drive, but if the HD is clicking you have a mechanical problem and running the extended tests on the drive may be just enough to kill it completely. (I'll leave links to utilities because I have them. Samsung ESWin or Drive Manager from this link should work on the drive but I see no mention of ability to repair errors and we already know the HD is failing. Running the utilities will just put unecessary stress on the HD.)

One other thought is to try a small live Linux distro running from CD or USB drive to see if it has better luck accessing your files. Sometimes linux will read files where Windows won't. Puppy linux is sufficient for your purposes and can run from CD. You would download a 160mb ISO file of puppy linux burn it to a blank CD then boot a computer from the CD and see if it can access the freecom drive (either internally or through USB). If you wanted to try that I could give more detailed instructions.