External hard drive not working in Windows 8.1 anymore

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olvrsxsmth

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Mar 30, 2013
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I was transferring some files from my laptop to my external hard drive when the file explorer window suddenly disappeared and a prompt showed up. I wasn't able to read it, but it was like the one that shows up when a USB is malfunctioning. I unplugged the hard drive and tried another port, but it wasn't showing up in the file explorer. The LED light was working though. So I tried using the hard drive on my desktop and it worked for a while. I was in the middle of transferring files again when a similar prompt showed up and the hard drive wasn't working anymore. This time, I borrowed my mom's laptop to test the hard drive but it didn't show up anymore. The LED still worked though.

Here are the things I've tried already:
- Uninstalling the universal serial bus drivers in device manager
- Checking disk management if the drive shows up, which it doesn't
- Reinstalling the driver by plugging in the hard drive and shutting down the computer completely, then unplugging the computer from the power cable for 1 minute before starting it up.

Please help me, I have some very important files on the hard drive :(
Thanks!
 
Solution
Phillip Corcoran
Well to start with, a single hard drive is not enough for backup security - - you need at least two with the same data on both of them.
In fact, if you only have the data on one hard drive, it isn't even backed up anyway by definition.

I keep my data backed up on no less than three external hard drives, then when one fails (as it surely will one day) there's no drama or panic.

Try a different USB cable, that's all I can suggest, but it's long shot as the issue is more likely to be with the hard drive itself or a faulty PCB inside the enclosure.
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Phillip Corcoran

Phillip Corcoran

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Well to start with, a single hard drive is not enough for backup security - - you need at least two with the same data on both of them.
In fact, if you only have the data on one hard drive, it isn't even backed up anyway by definition.

I keep my data backed up on no less than three external hard drives, then when one fails (as it surely will one day) there's no drama or panic.

Try a different USB cable, that's all I can suggest, but it's long shot as the issue is more likely to be with the hard drive itself or a faulty PCB inside the enclosure.
 
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Solution
Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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Hey there, olvrsxsmth.

Just as @Phillip mentioned, judging by the the issue and everything you've tried, there's not much else you can do besides trying the drive with another cable and hope that yours is faulty. If that doesn't prove helpful, then you could try accessing the drive via Linux Live CD/USB to see if it's recognized and if you can get to your data, or try some of the data recovery tools from this thread: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html. If everything fails, it seems like your only option remains a data recovery company.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD
 
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olvrsxsmth

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Mar 30, 2013
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I opened the hard drive and it turns out the PCB is soldered to the hard drive itself, so I can't plug it into my desktop :(
Thanks for all your help guys! I'll just buy 2 new hard drives and run them in RAID 1.
 
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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If you've opened the hard drive, that mean's you've probably voided the warranty if it had one. On the other hand, unless the drive has a proprietary connector of some sort, you should be able to connect it like an internal HDD, by using regular SATA cables.
I should also mention that RAID 1 isn't considered a backup even though it offers redundancy. In order to be considered backed up, your data has to be on a different device and a different location, e.g. cloud storage, or another external HDD, etc.

Good luck mate!
 
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olvrsxsmth

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Well, the hard drive is old anyways, way past the warranty period. And yes, it uses a proprietary connector.
Ok, thanks for the info about RAID 1. :D
 
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