External Hard Drive Question

seanny

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I have this hard drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136582 .It has worked o.k. sometimes when I back-up my files,it takes 2 or 3 tries.Today I noticed the drive is not recognized at all.I tried different trouble shooting methods.Turn off,unplug,wait ten seconds plug in again...etc... still nothing.The light is on the drive and it sounds like it is running.Does anyone know how I would know if it is really done(dead)?
 

seanny

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I checked further and it said that NEC host controller has an issue.Any idea how to fix?I guess the drive is O.K.The only thing I have installed in this computer in the last couple weeks has been Nvidia Drivers and the new Crysis 2 game.
 
The NewEgg link is discontinued. If that is a USB hard drive, then it is not likely to be your host controller.

1) Don't plug and unplug, power-off and power-on, an external drive without going through the Safely Remove Hardware drill. It is likely to corrupt the drive.

2) Can you try the drive on another computer? If you get the same issues, then it is the hard drive, the enclosure (those things do fail), or the USB cable.

3) How did you check it further and get the information that the controller has an issue? Which controller (on the drive, in the external enclosure, or on your mobo)?

If it is really dead, the most common solution is to open the case, take the drive, attach it directly to the motherboard, and use something like Clonezilla or EASEUS clone to copy as much as can be recovered.

Let us know the results of the above tests, or whatever you try.
 
Ah, more detail. Can you post a piccy of Device Mangler? Is there a red X next to the device, or a yellow exclamation point? And, finally, have you tried some other USB device, like a thumb drive, in the suspect port?

You can tell that I like to do a lot of tests to narrow things down. But the Device Manager flagging the controller is a pretty good indication!
 

seanny

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Yellow
 
Hmm. Was the version of the controller driver that you download from the motherboard maker ( http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3434#dl ) and have you installed it yet? If so, and the controller is still flagged as bad, I would try, as a last-ditch effort, uninstalling the device in Device Manager and rebooting. When it finds new HW, point it to the recently downloaded driver. If that still doesn't work, get an eSata drive and forget about USB.

Your PC has three-way graphics and a floppy drive? "Something old, something new."

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Have you tried the drive on USB ports from the chipset, not the NEC 3.0 ports? Your spec says:
Integrated in the South Bridge:

1. Up to 12 USB 2.0/1.1 ports (6 on the back panel, including 2 eSATA/USB Combo, 4 via the USB brackets connected to the internal USB headers)

NEC chip:

1. Up to 2 USB 3.0/2.0 ports on the back panel

I have no idea what a USB / eSATA combo port is. None.
 

seanny

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Yes,that is the exact item
 

seanny

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I tried to 'back up' again using the USB 2.0 slots and still sis not work.I looked and it says'device working properly'It's wierd,it worked recently,right before I added 2 more 23 inch 3d Asus monitors.
 

seanny

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I am gonna try the USB 2.0 again.Something else I should have said(don't remember if I said before)this drive had been problematic before.I would have to try 2 or 3 times before the ;back up' was successful.