Now I Feel Dumb. :p

For some reason I've gotten the reputation of being the person to talk to about computer issues in my house. NOT because I'm great at it, but because I know where to ask for help and when.
Brother in law has purchased a new external HD. Just plug it in and it should work fine, right?
Except it didn't, so he called on me. He told me he couldn't find the drive letter, so after trying disk partition I figured out that the drive wasn't being recognized.

So we went to the basics. Is it turned on? Is it plugged into the computer? Is the cable properly seated?
And we're looking at the cable, which has a second plug to it. So I look at the parts list and that isn't the same as the one IN the parts list.

"Oh, I think that's the cable to my other external that I discarded."
"Why did you discard the old external?"
"I couldn't get it to be recognized. There must be something..."
That's when I cut him off.
"Where's the new cable?"
"Right here"

So... Changed cable and the HD queued right up. And I looked at him and said, "What did you do with the other (brand new!) external?"
"I took it to the recyclers."
"Oh. Was it showing the same problem as this one was?"
"Well, yeah... Oh."

That took me about 90 minutes...

 

LOL, I can relate! Funny.

 

lol Reason why you don't trust some to do computer work.

 

My parents always asks me but i dont really mind hahaha