Toshiba portable hard drive is not working properly

[romeB]

Hello,

I have a TOSHIBA portable hard drive 1TB, when I plug it into my TOSHIBA laptop it makes the usual sound, the white light on the hard drive blink and I can hear and fell the hard drive buffering. The problem is that my laptop does not respond, it does not show the auto-play pop up windows nor it shows under drives on my PC. I have tried with another computer and the problem still remains.

I already uninstalled the USB drivers on device manager and rebooted the computer and still no luck.

If I can even just get the information out it would be fine.

I have a TOSHIBA SATELLITE L505
Windows 7 HOME PREMIUM 64x

If someone can guide me thru on how to fix it or get at lease the information that I have in there it would save my day.

Regards!!!

 

[Maxx_Power]

In the control panel, find "Administrative TOols" and open up "COmputer Management".

Inside this, open up "Storage" just underneath "System tools", then open up the only option "Disk Mangement".

Inside this panel, you will see all your drives, hard or soft. See if you can see that 1TB drive listed. It'll be listed as "Disk" followed by a number. THe number starts from "0", so the first hard drive is "Disk 0", and so on.


IF IT IS LISTED:

Your drive is working, but some thing is wrong with the drive partitioning or formating. You can try reformating it/repartitioning it right there in the disk management panel. Your drive may have been damaged (usually physical and thermal, and sometimes defects in the drives). If it is damaged, you may NOT be able to complete format or partition.

IF NOT:

Your drive is not recognized at a hardware level. It may have died. This is incredibly common. Double check this by going into the control panel, then device manager, then the drop down list of "Disk Drives". See if your 1TB is listed there, possibly with some yellow or red icons on it indicating that it is not functioning correctly.

 

[romeB]

Thank you.

I check and it's not listed. Although, when I removed the hard drive it appears and disappear really quick. The computer really tries to recognize it but the hard drive won't cooperate.

I took the hard drive to the IT department were I work and we tested it on a mac and linux base platform and there was no success.

I really want to recover the information. It's really important. I bought the hard drive to prevent file lost but I guess it was not a smart move.

Thank you anyway man!!!!

 

[Maxx_Power]

Thank you.

I check and it's not listed. Although, when I removed the hard drive it appears and disappear really quick. The computer really tries to recognize it but the hard drive won't cooperate.

I took the hard drive to the IT department were I work and we tested it on a mac and linux base platform and there was no success.

I really want to recover the information. It's really important. I bought the hard drive to prevent file lost but I guess it was not a smart move.

Thank you anyway man!!!!

Does the drive spin up ? (put it up against your ear and see if you can hear it.) If it does, there is a chance that if you simply open up the enclosure, you can get access to the raw drive, and the part that is broken is the interface logic board in the enclosure.

If you want to go the data-recovery route, it is not cheap, but you may be able to find someone who can do this locally. Make SURE to find a specialist, a lot of local shops can TRY to recover data, but if they don't succeed, the drive is sometimes worse than when it started. Try looking around for a data recovery specialist with an advertised dust-free clean room, they'll be able to tinker down to the platter level if necessary (price forgiving).

 

[cneal6]

I believe I have the same problem Toshiba 1TB hard drive. Would not be seen by computer...My problem was I set a password on drive with it's smartwire program and it locks it up...also plug it in a usb port not a hub because as someone said it needs more power.
Do so it should hum and smartwire program starts enter password and it will give you the contents of all your drive.
More power/password/contents of HD

 

[CHA102512]

In the control panel, find "Administrative TOols" and open up "COmputer Management".

Inside this, open up "Storage" just underneath "System tools", then open up the only option "Disk Mangement".

Inside this panel, you will see all your drives, hard or soft. See if you can see that 1TB drive listed. It'll be listed as "Disk" followed by a number. THe number starts from "0", so the first hard drive is "Disk 0", and so on.


IF IT IS LISTED:

Your drive is working, but some thing is wrong with the drive partitioning or formating. You can try reformating it/repartitioning it right there in the disk management panel. Your drive may have been damaged (usually physical and thermal, and sometimes defects in the drives). If it is damaged, you may NOT be able to complete format or partition.

IF NOT:

Your drive is not recognized at a hardware level. It may have died. This is incredibly common. Double check this by going into the control panel, then device manager, then the drop down list of "Disk Drives". See if your 1TB is listed there, possibly with some yellow or red icons on it indicating that it is not functioning correctly.

 

[CHA102512]

MY EXTERNAL HD APPEARS AS LOCAL DISK. TRIED DISK MANAGEMENT. IT APPEARS. BUT IS SAYS THERE THAT THE SPACE FREE AND USED IS THE SAME. 1.8 TB. MY HDD IS Toshiba 2TB Canvio® Desktop External Hard Drive (Black). http://www.toshiba.com/us/accessories/Desk/2TB/Desk/HDWC120XK3J1
PLEASE HELP. DOES THIS MEAN THAT IT DOESNT ALREADY HAVE THE CONTENTS.? I USED ONLY 1 TB OUT OF 2 TB.

 

[perkerkel]

Thank you.

I check and it's not listed. Although, when I removed the hard drive it appears and disappear really quick. The computer really tries to recognize it but the hard drive won't cooperate.

I took the hard drive to the IT department were I work and we tested it on a mac and linux base platform and there was no success.

I really want to recover the information. It's really important. I bought the hard drive to prevent file lost but I guess it was not a smart move.

Thank you anyway man!!!!

Does the drive spin up ? (put it up against your ear and see if you can hear it.) If it does, there is a chance that if you simply open up the enclosure, you can get access to the raw drive, and the part that is broken is the interface logic board in the enclosure.

If you want to go the data-recovery route, it is not cheap, but you may be able to find someone who can do this locally. Make SURE to find a specialist, a lot of local shops can TRY to recover data, but if they don't succeed, the drive is sometimes worse than when it started. Try looking around for a data recovery specialist with an advertised dust-free clean room, they'll be able to tinker down to the platter level if necessary (price forgiving).

Hi there,
I have the same problem...a Toshiba v63700-H full of important info. The white light flashes up when I plug it in and I can hear the drive whirring but it doesn't show up anywhere including in that Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management . Reading through all this info tells me it must be the interface logic board thats the problem. Is it something I can fix myself? Can you buy that component?

 

[dave775]

I have one doing exctly the same. Won't appear in listings and flashes a few times and whirrs then dies. I bought it new from an ebay seller a month ago. Is there a dodgy batch perhaps?

 

[Soumya_29]

Hi.
I have a Toshiba hard drive 1TB. Was working fine till yesterday when I added some documents.
It still connects to my computer and appears there but won't open. It also does not show the memory space available like other internal drives.
Have already tried updating driver and reinstalling/rebooting.

Please help out.

 

[cheltr0n]

i had this problem (drive spins up, light comes on, drive does not appear in bios or disk management) and spent hours searching around, as it turns out one of the pins of the usb had been crushed and folded up. i.e. the drive got power but no data. i was able to fold it back down and it fired right up. have a new cable on order now.

 

[Kenneth_17]

I have one that does the same thing on windows, however linux mint x64 picks it up fine. might try that to recover the data, it's available as a live distro. This means you do not have to install the operating system, just burn to dvd or usb stick, and hit enter on the default start up option of try linux mint.

Thank you.

I check and it's not listed. Although, when I removed the hard drive it appears and disappear really quick. The computer really tries to recognize it but the hard drive won't cooperate.

I took the hard drive to the IT department were I work and we tested it on a mac and linux base platform and there was no success.

I really want to recover the information. It's really important. I bought the hard drive to prevent file lost but I guess it was not a smart move.

Thank you anyway man!!!!

 

[ToeKnee32]

Hey guys,

Im no tech specialist, but i did have the same problem with my Toshiba 1TB Hard Drive, after my laptop suddenly shutdown on me.

The Hard drive was registering in Disk Management but not on 'My PC'.

In attempt of what i thought would 're-format' my hard drive, i UNINSTALLED it in the disk management section. I then removed the hard drive from the USB port and re-connected it. Literally all my content on the hard drive is back and she is working perfectly.

Not saying this is going to work all the time, but maybe worth a try if you submit defeat.

 

[pascal_scl]

It seems all the problems are due a bad quality of the U3-100 to 22pin connector that comes within the case.

Open the case, pull apart the connector and replace it with a new one.... You can find it anywhere, for example, search for "U3-100 to 22pin connector" in Aliexpress

 

[CaptainW]

I was searching this thread as my Toshiba StoreE alu2 wasn't showing up but I've just found my data and here is what happened in case it helps. I copied loads of files from an old PC ready to move to a new PC for my parents. When I plugged the Ext HDD into the new PC it whired, the light came on but it didn't open or show in My PC etc. Eventually I found it under Disk Management but I couldn't get into it! That evening i tried the HDD on my Mac, my wife's laptop and my MacAir but none opened it or showed the folders. I look at loads of sites, read threads etc but to no avail. I then got hold of the OLD PC that I copied the folders from and plugged in the Ext HDD. This PC recognised it and showed all the folders! Fantastic as I got all my data back and copied it to another Ext HDD that seemed to work on different PCs. I still don't know why I had all these issues though. Surely ext HDDs are designed to work on any PC? Perhaps I formatted it on the old PC and somehow that meant it only worked on that PC? I don't know. Anyway, I though I would post this in case it helps someone else.

 

[Mohammad_Khalid]

I have a Toshiba canvio basics 3.0 HDTB310EK3AA just bought it several months ago. It was working very well, but suddenly it shuts off and never worked again no flashing white lights no nothing! I really need help