External Hard Drive Problems.

Question

Carsten_1 5 Newbie Poster

4 Years Ago

So I have this 1TB external hard drive that I use for my games. It was working fine uptill about a week ago. I opened my laptop like normal, it did its startup stuff and everything was looking good untill I went to play DOOM Eternal. An error poped up saying something like the .exe file could not be found. I looked into it and saw that my hard-drive wasn't showing up under the "This PC" tab in file explorer. I go to devices and it shows up there, but isn't being read as a storage device. And if there is any advice on the audiobox 96 that would be helpful too.

hard-drive

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Latest Post 4 Years Ago Latest Post by Reverend Jim

Reverend Jim 4,968 Hi, I'm Jim, one of DaniWeb's moderators.

4 Years Ago

The first obvious steps:

reboot
try a different cable
try a different USB port
try a different computer

Edited 4 Years Ago by Reverend Jim

Carsten_1 commented: Tried new computer too. Nothing. Does this mean my drive is bad? +0

rproffitt 2,662 "Nothing to see here."

4 Years Ago

While it usually the end of said drive, can we have the full make and model number?

Why? Sometimes it's the case that failed but newer (cheaper) models don't have the little adapter board old models had so you have to share the information so others can check that out.

Another reason for it to not show is when the file system is blown. See if it shows in Device Manager or even on a Linux PC.

Carsten_1 commented: So its a my passport ultra. The S/N is WX51D1926AY7. The P/N is WDBFTM0040BSL-0D. Not sure if that helps but that's the numbers off the back +0

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Tried new computer too. Nothing. Does this mean my drive is bad?
So its a my passport ultra. The S/N is WX51D1926AY7. The P/N is WDBFTM0040BSL-0D. Not sure if that helps but that's the numbers off the back

score 0 · Answer 1 · 2020-09-25T19:32:48+00:00

There are also utilities which might be able to recover data from a failed (or near failed) drive. I recommend spinrite.

rproffitt 2,662 "Nothing to see here." Moderator · Answer 2 · 2020-09-25T21:08:45+00:00

Saidly this is the new cheap as they can make HDD with the USB port right on the drive.
https://3b6tg03su4w72twlokencxn4-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/wd-4tb-drive.jpg for example.

Last rites:
Does the drive spin? (if not it's dead and gone.)
Does the drive show up in Linux or Windows Device Manager? (if not, it's dead and gone.)

score 1 · Answer 3 · 2020-09-25T22:17:35+00:00

I had an external drive "go" on me and it ended up being the controller on the drive enclosure. I got a new (NexStar) external bay, popped in the drive and it was fine. My local computer shop (Itech Computers) has several open external mounts in their service area. They were able to slide the drive in and check it in under 30 seconds. Any reputable place should do that for free.