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jamminph88

macrumors member
Original poster
May 6, 2007
51
0
My maxtor onetouch 3 500gb external that has my extensive movie collection along with entire time machine backup of my macbook pro all of a sudden stopped showing up when i plug it in. I tried unplugging it from the usb hub, switching usb cables, unplugging it from the wall and am getting pretty concerned. Anyone have any ideas as to what could be wrong? Its out of warranty and im not looking to spend the hundreds of dollars maxtor will charge me to fix it.
 
Try a PRAM (hold option+:apple:+P+R while starting up and wait 3 chimes) reset and try again. Its possible that the device tree just needs to be reset and it'll pick it up they way you expect. The other thing that would be worth a shot is connecting the drive to another Mac and seeing if you can pull any data off it.
 
:confused: I don't know if it's a coincidence, but I have the same ext. 500GB Maxtor OneTouch III. It was my largest and most expensive when I got it 2 years ago, but then completely failed on me after less than 2 years. Kept clicking and clicking and either wouldn't mount or couldn't copy or access most files.

I have had so many other internal & external Maxtors & Seagates that lasted me several years (some up to 11 so far!) that I was very disappointed. Luckily, Seagate absorbed Maxtor and now offers 5-year warranties. I was able to get a free replacement out of Seagate, but maybe this specific OneTouch is faulty. My previous OneTouch 160GB and my current new OneTouch IV Plus 1 TB work fine. At least now these have a 5-year warranty!
 
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