How To Recover Data From An External Hard Drive

ShortFuze · Oct 10, 2014

Recently my external stopped connecting to my pc, how do i recover the data? Please i have important files

Entomber · Oct 10, 2014

- When you connect and turn on your external hard drive, are there any lights? Any sort of spinup or operational noises?
- Have you tried connecting it to a different PC?

ShortFuze · Oct 10, 2014

Seems like the hard drive works on my home theater, Why won't my pc recognize it? It recognizes my wireless headset, which is connected to a dock via usb

ShortFuze · Oct 10, 2014

This just started happening recently

Entomber · Oct 10, 2014

Try connecting your external hard drive to different USB ports on your computer. Perhaps the one you are trying is not functional.

ShortFuze · Oct 10, 2014

Entomber :

I have, all of my usb ports work. This build is custom, costs 3k. For some reason it just doesn't recognize the external, this has been happening for weeks but i havent tried fixing it yet. Could it be that the usb doesn't have enough power to run the external? The external hard drives light do go on when connected to the pc

Entomber · Oct 10, 2014

Try making sure that your USB controller drivers are updated.

Go to Device Manager -> Universal Serial Bus Controllers
find your USB controller and make sure it is up-to-date.

ronintexas · Oct 10, 2014

There could be driver issues or power draw is too much from that port (although any modern mobo should give enough power). Backup the data on the drive before you try things on your PC....you could lose data....

ShortFuze · Oct 10, 2014

ronintexas :

I can't back up the data on the external if my computer cant even recognize it

ronintexas · Oct 10, 2014

"Seems like the hard drive works on my home theater, Why won't my pc recognize it? It recognizes my wireless headset, which is connected to a dock via usb "

What is the "home theater"?

ShortFuze · Oct 10, 2014

ronintexas :

My surround sound system in which i watch movies on

ronintexas · Oct 10, 2014

If it is connecting there - I bet you could go to another computer (perhaps a friend's computer) and backup the data.

ShortFuze · Oct 10, 2014

ronintexas :

It's full though, has 1 tb, only 30 gigs of free space left

ShortFuze · Oct 10, 2014

Does nobody have a solution on how to fix this?

ronintexas · Oct 10, 2014

Having a backup copy will ensure that you don't lose anything....you can try and mess around with the drive and make it work on your computer - but you are running the risk of losing your data....if it is important stuff - back it up! I never have a single copy of any data on my computer - usually have 2-3 copies just to be safe.

ShortFuze · Oct 10, 2014

ronintexas :

http://puu.sh/c7tD2/da3f555599.jpg What does this mean, why is it red

ronintexas · Oct 10, 2014

It is not connecting right. It could be your computer - or it could be the drive. First thing you should always do is try a new cable - if that doesn't fix it, you try another computer. There are 3 possible failure points:
1) The Cable (replacing it eliminates that as the issue)
2) The computer (trying a 2nd computer eliminates that as the issue)
3) The drive - when it doesn't work on multiple cables and multiple computers, there is an issue with the drive.

One you identify what the cause of the problem is - you can attempt to repair it.

Entomber · Oct 11, 2014

ShortFuze :

In Windows 7, a red bar means that the drive in question is almost full. It doesn't indicate lack of connectivity.

How To Recover Data From An External Hard Drive

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