Portable Hard Drive not being recognized

Hi,

I have received so much excellent help here and I'm hoping that someone will be able to help us with this because it is so important. We have a portable hard drive where we keep all of our photos (you know in case our hd on the computer would fail). So, all of a sudden, the computer says it's not able to recognize this device. We hoped that we just lost the drivers but we have tried plugging it into our laptop with the same result. Please tell me it can somehow be recovered.

Thanks in advance.

Tammy

 

It could be something as simple as replacing the USB cable between the drive and the computer. Cables are the "weakest link" and the least expensive replacement item. Over time, they tend to break internally and need replacement.

 

Thanks. So is the cable something that I would have to order custom for the device or are there replacements out there that I can purchase? Thanks.

 

Sorry to hi-jack your thread but I wouldn't mind the answer to this as well.

Im having the same trouble. I've tried error checking the drive but "windows can't access the disk".

Mine is a relatively new drive so although its not impossible, I doubt the cable is damaged yet.

 

You can buy cables online or in stores.
Is the portable hd USB 2 or 3?
One end of the cable, the part that plugs into the drive is a micro connector. The other end is just a normal USB connector.
USB 2

USB 3