Seagate 2TB USB 3 Ext HDD not recognized by PC, but feels as if starting up

I've got a Seagate 2TB USB 3.0 External HDD for the past approximately 3 years.

At some point a year ago, my desktop did not recognize the HD. It appeared as if the enclosure blocked the cable to properly insert into the HD. I removed the enclosure (a job!!) and for a time it was working fine.
Now for the past months, it lost contact again when I moved the HD. I finally got it on top of the PC box, where it made contact and I taped it with insulation tape to the box.

Unfortunately, I moved the PC last night and again, the PC does not recognize the HD.

I tried 2 different USB cables, moved the HD around and one can hear and feel the HD starting up, sometimes even the little light would go on, but nothing appears in Explorer.

I will provide all the specs later in the day- I have Windows 8.1; i5; but all the other detail, I cannot remember.

So, why does it feels as if the HD is starting (?partially) up, but nothing further happens?

 

There are three basic places to check whether a hard drive is detected. The first is in bios so connect the drive as best you can then keep tapping del or F2 as soon as the computer is turned on to enter bios and check the hard drive is recognized in standard cmos features, they will also be listed in hard drive boot priority. If not the drive is dead or the connection is faulty.

The next is in control panel,admin tools,computer management,disk management. Check the drive is listed as active, is partitioned properly and the size is reported correctly.

The last place to check is explorer, which you obviously have and it isn't detected.

 

How is this Hard drive connected to your PC now? Is it connected internally to a SATA port or connected externally to a USB port via an enclosure/adapter?

 

My email was not working and I only saw the replies now. Will study them today.

Specifications:

2.8 GogaHertz IntelCore i5-2300
Multicore
2x internal hard drives (160 GB and 500 GB)
Avermedia capture card
Windows 8.1

The external HD is a 2TB Seagate Baracuda; Model ST2000DM001















I hope this might help

 

Connected by a USB 3 cable, but as you can see on the photos, I should be able to connect it internally with a SATA cable. I am just not sure if there is another connection left. In that case, I suppose, I can replace the 500GB HD with the 2 TB HD??

 

f there's no additional SATA connections on the mobo, then yes, you would swap out the 500 GB drive for the 2 TB one and put the 500 GB one in an USB enclosure.

 

Well, If you find out that the 2TB drive works fine when it is connected internally via SATA then I don't think that there would still be a reason for you not to swap the drives if you are already out of SATA ports in your system.

 

Well, it works. I removed the 500GB internal memory HD and connected this 2TB ext HD to the mother board. Works perfectly.

But, I supposeone cannot trust that it will work indefinitely.

Apart from back-up, although this is a lot of data, what else can I do (if anything?)

I am getting so paranoid, as DVDs I made 3-4 years ago, starts jumping or stopping on TV, although we have only watched them a few times.I have a Samsung DVD E-360

 

Well, it might still be able to give you a few years of service at least in normal operation. But it is not a bad idea to buy a hard drive of the same size or even larger in capacity and image that drive to the new drive.