External Hard Drive "Not Responding"

jn123 · Oct 27, 2014

I've taken the hard drive out of my dead Acer V5 and put into a cheap SATA enclosure. When I plug this external HDD into my new laptop (Dell Inspiron 3000), the drive shows up in My Computer but when I click it (right or left), the window freezes and it says 'Not responding'. Windows explorer ceases to function when it's plugged in (as soon as I unplug everything is back to normal).

When I go to Disk Management, the window stays grey with "Connecting to Virtual Disk Service" at the bottom (I cannot see any drives). Once I unplug the external, my C drive quickly pops up in the window.

I cannot access this drive at all, it is recognized by Windows but seems to shut down a part of Explorer whenever I try to access.

I tried my external HDD on my friend's Mac and it worked perfectly. Any thoughts on this? I've read many hours of forum posts but no one has listed the same issue as mine. Please help, all my files are lost until I get my HDD back

popatim · Oct 27, 2014

Does your enclosure provide power from an external supply? it sounds like the drive isnt getting enough power from your pc.

D_Know_WD · Oct 28, 2014

Hi there jn123

After the drive is recognized by Mac, I would advise you to start with backing up the important data that is on the drive. It will also not hurt if you run a test using Disk Utility.
As what popatim mentioned might be a possible cause, I would advise you to try a different USB cable(Y type of cable preferably). Have you used the enclosure with another drive before?
If the issue persists, you can try uninstalling the drive(Device Management). After you plug it in after that, the drivers should automatically download and install.
Also, there is a possibility that this is a USB controller drivers issue. You can uninstall them, reboot and install them again.

How to test the drive on Mac: http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/866

Hope this will help,
D_Know_WD

jn123 · Oct 29, 2014

Thanks guys.

I bought a new enclosure with a power source but the same problem persists. I also tried another external HDD (320GB, cannot be opened) that I have and it worked perfectly.

I'm not sure how I can run a desk using Disk Utility - I've googled to find out what that means and how to access but everytime I try to open Disk Management I just get a blank screen (when I remove the HDD, it starts working).

I don't know how to uninstall the drive if the window reads 'not responding' everytime I try to do anything with it.

Thanks for the ideas but I'm still very stuck on how to proceed. At this point, I am going out any buying a new laptop.

D_Know_WD · Oct 30, 2014

You can test the drive with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool and see if the results will show something unusual. And again, as the hard drive is recognized on Mac, I would advise you to back up your data.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

jn123 · Oct 30, 2014

Thanks, I'll try that out. Any thoughts on how I can back up my data? I don't own a Mac, it was a friends who I won't be seeing for a while.

Math Geek · Oct 30, 2014

do you have access to a desktop pc? someone else in the house, a friend, school maybe? i would plug that hdd into a pc to access it, back up your data, and run some of the diagnostics suggested to see if something is wrong with the hdd. getting your data saved is first priority.

i have had nothing but issues with these enclosures and avoid them myself (though i'm sure my experience is not the norm). my guess is also a driver issue on the laptop. have you used other usb devices on this laptop? thumb drives, usb wireless, other external hdd's, printer?? ran into a similar usb issue once and it ended up being the plug and play service was disabled.

jn123 · Oct 30, 2014

Thanks again for the help. I brought my hard drive to another friend with a Mac and it didn't work (recognized but can't be accessed). My fear is that having plugged in and removed this drive so many times I may have damaged it further. The first handful of times I tried it with my new laptop, I could actually see the folders on the drive but the folders had permission restrictions on me (but not on the Mac). The past week nothing has been accessible.

I just came back from a computer repair store, they tried my external with their laptops but no luck.

So my question is, how do I backup/recover data when the hard drive cannot be accessed? Any good links to recommend?

Math Geek · Oct 30, 2014

if the drive is totally dead then the only way to recover is gonna be expensive. the mechanics can be messed up but the data is still on the platters. a recovery company will have to take the platters out of the drive and put them into another one to access the data. this is VERY costly and only worth it if the data is very important like business data and such that is not replaceable.

D_Know_WD · Oct 31, 2014

I would safe that your safest bet of recovering your data, apart from a data recovery company, would be to connect it internally to a computer via SATA and try to run some recovery software.
Check this data recovery thread out: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

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