ex-harddrive problems

hi im new to the forums, and i hate to post a "help me" thread as a very new member, but i do need help and i cant figure it out myself.

i have an external hard-drive that i keep school projects, pictures and such that are rather important to me right now. but recently it just stopped working, when its plugged in and connected via usb i hear it turning on. but my pc never actually reads it. it doesnt even show up when i look through the device manager. i tried checking all the usb ports with my camera/flash drive and such and they work fine. i tried connecting it to my laptop and it doesnt read there as well. so ive figured this isnt a software problem, but just the harddrive itself.

i really dont know what to do, and i dont wanna open it up and tinker with it without any knowledge of what to do and be counterproductive. if anyone can help me id greatly appreciate it, if there is anymore info needed ask me questions as well.

 

Need specfics on the external hard drive? BTW was this hard drive dropped to your knowledge?

 

yes, my girlfriend kicked it off the pc tower while she was doing some research paper

 

Hey there,

Theres a good chance, especially if it was actively reading or wrtiing at the time, that it has taken a fatal blow.

Hard drives in External Caddies are the same as the ones in your p.c, if its a 3.5 inch drive you could try removing it from your external caddie and install in a p.c and seeing if it works, probably have to set the jumper to slave SL or possibly cable select CS though if not already done.

The external drive may have taken a knock and although things are usually pretty jammed up in the External Hard Drive caddies things may get knocked loose. Check for loose connections, in the caddie, before installing into another P.C it maybe something minor.

As it has been damaged through accident insurance might cover it but a warranty wont.

If it doesnt go then it could be bye bye. Depending on the damage to the Hard drives platters or read write heads, there maybe some recovery software options, if its for important work. What this software might be is a look online and see whats out there...

Feel you pain on this one good luck!:wave

 

i wish i was a bit more tech savy then i currently am, but ill have a friend try and install it into the pc and try that out, thanks for the reply. the info was greatly appreciated