External Hard Drive stopped Connecting

[kalexn]

Hi everyone. I am having a minor freak out. I have an external hard drive that is always connected to my Macbook Pro. I use it for work. It also has my iPhoto library on it. I left today at 1 pm with it connected and the computer closed. I came back at 10 pm, computer still closed but external hard drive not showing up on the desk top. Dropbox would also not connect (it links to the external drive).

Weird this is I did not touch it, no one was in the house to move it, nothing. I tried connecting it to my husbands computer but it does not show up. It has the blue light on it showing that it is connected, but that is it. It also makes a small noise.

Any idea? I need my external drive and the photos on it. That would really, really stink!! Nothing was touched or done, which is the weird part!

Thanks ahead of time!

 

[Laserducky]

Hi everyone. I am having a minor freak out. I have an external hard drive that is always connected to my Macbook Pro. I use it for work. It also has my iPhoto library on it. I left today at 1 pm with it connected and the computer closed. I came back at 10 pm, computer still closed but external hard drive not showing up on the desk top. Dropbox would also not connect (it links to the external drive).

Weird this is I did not touch it, no one was in the house to move it, nothing. I tried connecting it to my husbands computer but it does not show up. It has the blue light on it showing that it is connected, but that is it. It also makes a small noise.

Any idea? I need my external drive and the photos on it. That would really, really stink!! Nothing was touched or done, which is the weird part!

Thanks ahead of time!

Can you eject the external hard drive, restart your machine, plug it back in and see what happens ?

Sometimes, if the hard drive disconnects by itself without being properly ejected, then that machine won't see the drive at all, even though it may appear powered on. In this case, you can open disk utility and try and repair disk/permissions on the external hard drive.

Cheers !

 

[simonsi]

It may have just died. Hardware sometimes does that. You have some kind of backup I hope?

I agree with the above suggestion. Does it only have a USB cable to the computer or does it have a power cable as well? If so then if you still can't get it to show up remove the power AND the USB cable, leave for 2mins then reconnect and reboot the computer.

 

[kalexn]

Can you eject the external hard drive, restart your machine, plug it back in and see what happens ?

Sometimes, if the hard drive disconnects by itself without being properly ejected, then that machine won't see the drive at all, even though it may appear powered on. In this case, you can open disk utility and try and repair disk/permissions on the external hard drive.

Cheers !

This is not a case of it not being properly ejected. When it is plugged in it makes some weird connecting noises (never has made them before), the blue light is on where the USB connects, and then it never shows up on my desktop. It also does not show up in disk utility.

I basically think the hard drive has for some reason fried, but there wasn't any reason or indication as to why this would happen. I have only had the hard drive SP 1TB since December. So obviously, this is strange and I am not too happy with this currently. I left and and then I came back and it no longer worked.

It may have just died. Hardware sometimes does that. You have some kind of backup I hope?

I agree with the above suggestion. Does it only have a USB cable to the computer or does it have a power cable as well? If so then if you still can't get it to show up remove the power AND the USB cable, leave for 2mins then reconnect and reboot the computer.

It is just an external hard drive connected with a USB cord, there is no external power.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

This is not a case of it not being properly ejected. When it is plugged in it makes some weird connecting noises (never has made them before), the blue light is on where the USB connects, and then it never shows up on my desktop. It also does not show up in disk utility.

I basically think the hard drive has for some reason fried, but there wasn't any reason or indication as to why this would happen. I have only had the hard drive SP 1TB since December. So obviously, this is strange and I am not too happy with this currently. I left and and then I came back and it no longer worked.



It is just an external hard drive connected with a USB cord, there is no external power.

Sounds like a dead hard drive to be honest, contact the manufaturer and get it replaced and then pay a computer shop to try and retrieve any lost files.

You may want to consider a backup solution if these files are important to you. A NAS system or similar will back everything up wirelessly for you.

 

[sbez]

did you leave it connected too network,bluettooth,you mention your staus instead of the p.c,this maybe why Apple security performs officers of fair trading getting to give up useless info from rumours as coronation street reels of someone somewhere still shadowly landing a husband as a real thing known about programming,although I decided not too use either as intrusion seems to be a suspection you would account,therefore allowing disabled use of networking reveals of your very situ,etc,which are necess in this evasion of privacy,that log will ,under policy reveal exact reasons/causes?(simply dont leave devices unattended and online?).

This is not a case of it not being properly ejected. When it is plugged in it makes some weird connecting noises (never has made them before), the blue light is on where the USB connects, and then it never shows up on my desktop. It also does not show up in disk utility.

I basically think the hard drive has for some reason fried, but there wasn't any reason or indication as to why this would happen. I have only had the hard drive SP 1TB since December. So obviously, this is strange and I am not too happy with this currently. I left and and then I came back and it no longer worked.



It is just an external hard drive connected with a USB cord, there is no external power.

ve it

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Just some thoughts.

Offhand, do you know how much space was actually being used on the drive?

If it wasn't too much, you might consider (for your next drive) something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00ZTRY532?tag=delt-20

Reason why I suggest an external SSD:
No moving parts to degrade over time.

These aren't too expensive in the smaller sizes.
If you need a LOT of room (approaching 1tb), a platter-based HDD remains more cost-efficient for now.