External hd Verbatim stopped responding...

[Hiltler]

HD was working perfect....i switched it off, few hours later tried switching on again, nothing. Its a wall powered drive so i took it apart no burn smells or anything, placed a different drive into the casing and that one worked just fine. Tried connecting my 'dead' drive to my pc but then my pc too wont power up......

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

The drive has most likely failed, which happens to all hard drives sooner or later and does not cause components to burn so don't assume it's okay just because there were no burning smells coming from it. They just fail through wear-and-tear, mis-handling, being dropped etc.

If the drive won't spin up, data recovery software won't help either. If the data is valuable and you were not wise enough to back it up in case of failure, only a data recovery specialist can get any data off it.

 

[Hiltler]

Thank you Phillip, guess ill be getting two new drives and a visit to a recovery specialist.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

You're welcome, Hiltler (have to be careful with spelling that!)

Too bad about the drive, but if it's any consolation we've all been there at least once.
External drives by their very nature (being moved about a lot, small enclosure restricts cooling) are less reliable than internal ones, and although that applies to all brands, I personally have found WD external drives to be the most reliable.

 

[Hiltler]

Haha i know, that spellings terrible. But in all fairness, this drive is about 3years old and i guess its about time to upgrade. Glad it happened coz now ill make regular backups. Just sad coz all my fav movies and programs were on there. Anyway thanks again for the info. Cheers

 

[fzabkar]

When you say that your PC won't power up, do you mean that its PSU shows no sign of life, ie no fan? If so, then the drive may have a shorted TVS diode, in which case the fix is usually an easy one.

See http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/TVS_diode_FAQ.html

... and http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/ (photo clips)

 

[Hiltler]

Fzabkar...yes, when i connect the drive to my pc it doesnt want to power up, take the drive out it starts up immediately. I read the 1st link and it does sound like it might be it, well im hoping its the TVS.