Confuser help

[Motori]

Appreciate any assistance in advance.

I have an external hard drive (Seagate brand model Free Agent Goflex don't recall the capacity at the moment) which stopped functioning this afternoon. When I connect it to USB port it makes few beeps then stops and ON light remains off. I have some important files in it which I would like to recover and dump it in another one If POSSIBLE.

Is there any way I could do it myself without paying an arm and a leg to Geek Squad?

 

[Pooya]

Appreciate any assistance in advance.

I have an external hard drive (Seagate brand model Free Agent Goflex don't recall the capacity at the moment) which stopped functioning this afternoon. When I connect it to USB port it makes few beeps then stops and ON light remains off. I have some important files in it which I would like to recover and dump it in another one If POSSIBLE.

Is there any way I could do it myself without paying an arm and a leg to Geek Squad?

Motori jaan,

first, open it up, put your hand on top of the HD, do you feel vibration? is the motor spinning ? if NOT then you are out of luck, if it is, there are bunch of file recovery programs you can use, I used one about a year a go at work and it was awesome, will check tomorrow what it was called.

btw word of advice, External USBs are the past brother, get Dropbox / Google Drive / SkyDrive ... peace of mind.

 

[mashdi]

Appreciate any assistance in advance.

I have an external hard drive (Seagate brand model Free Agent Goflex don't recall the capacity at the moment) which stopped functioning this afternoon. When I connect it to USB port it makes few beeps then stops and ON light remains off. I have some important files in it which I would like to recover and dump it in another one If POSSIBLE.

Is there any way I could do it myself without paying an arm and a leg to Geek Squad?

Should serve you right to make a proper habit of always backing up your important files on regular basis. it's like always doing the proper required chores on Vazir Jang's birthday , anniversary , etc.

: دو بیتی ِ وصفُ الحال

مرد ِ خردمند ِ هنرپيشه را
عمر دو بايست دراين روزگار
تا به يكی تجربه آموختن
در دگری تجربه بردن به كار

 

[Flint]

btw word of advice, External USBs are the past brother, get Dropbox / Google Drive / SkyDrive ... peace of mind.

Try backing up 200 GB to Dropbox. Even my incremental backups are several gigs.

 

[Motori]

Motori jaan,

first, open it up, put your hand on top of the HD, do you feel vibration? is the motor spinning ? if NOT then you are out of luck, if it is, there are bunch of file recovery programs you can use, I used one about a year a go at work and it was awesome, will check tomorrow what it was called.

btw word of advice, External USBs are the past brother, get Dropbox / Google Drive / SkyDrive ... peace of mind.

Thank you for the reply Pooya jAn,

It is one of those external HD came with some job related programs already loaded in. Now when I connect to any USB port the progress light does not light up, it just makes 2 beeps and then nothing. I checked with an electronic Estescope to see if I can hear the motor running and couldn't hear a thing. I guess it is toast and need to think about a replacement. OOOCH....$$$$$

 

[Motori]

Should serve you right to make a proper habit of always backing up your important files on regular basis. it's like always doing the proper required chores on Vazir Jang's birthday , anniversary , etc.

: دو بیتی ِ وصفُ الحال

مرد ِ خردمند ِ هنرپيشه را
عمر دو بايست دراين روزگار
تا به يكی تجربه آموختن
در دگری تجربه بردن به كار

Mashdi joon, gar discipline daashtami....beh inrooz naftaadami. Az yeh shotor porsidan cheraa gardaanet inghadr kajeh? goft mard e moo'men kojaamoon raasteh.

 

[Motori]

Try backing up 200 GB to Dropbox. Even my incremental backups are several gigs.

Flint,

The soft ware which came with the external harddrive is protected. I can not be copied. Never tried to see if I could back it up, but I'm guessing if you can't copy it then you won't be able to back it up either. Right?

 

[Flint]

Flint,

The soft ware which came with the external harddrive is protected. I can not be copied. Never tried to see if I could back it up, but I'm guessing if you can't copy it then you won't be able to back it up either. Right?

The backup program doesn't care or know what is on the drive. It simply makes a bit by bit copy of whatever you have. I have never seen software that stops people from copying it. The protection is built in the way it is run so you need a key for that. I would not give up just yet. Does the drive mount? Try another computer, may be even a Mac. When you say "ON light remains off", is this the power light you are talking about? Even a bad drive will show the light when connected to power. If it is not, it is not getting power.

 

[navid007]

Motori jan you may want to open the hard drive enclosure and test the drive separately. sometimes when the board inside the case is defective it doesn't detect the hard drive or may not supply the power. Try removing the drive and plug it into your computer and it may work.

 

[Bi-honar]

Mr. A. I suggest trying a couple of trouble shooting steps. First, you should run "chkdsk":

1.Open the "Computer" window
2.Right-click on the drive in question. Pick "Properties"
3.Select the "Tools" tab
4.In the Error-checking area, click <Check Now>.

If your external hard drive does not show up here, what I suggest is that you go into your control panel and manually uninstall your external drive. This is how you do that if you're running Windows 7:

Go to Control Panel click on "System & Security", in the window after that under "System" click "Device Manager" and then double click "Disk Drives" in the new window that opens. You should be able to see your external hard drive there. Right click and select "uninstall".

After you've done that, plug the USB cable from the hard drive back in and see if it asks you to install it. If that does not happen, leave it plugged in and reboot the system to see if the new hardware installation wizard comes up. If it doesn't, you know that your drive is physically damaged. Geek Squad or a proper computer technician is the only way to go.

 

[Motori]

Mr. A. I suggest trying a couple of trouble shooting steps. First, you should run "chkdsk":

1.Open the "Computer" window
2.Right-click on the drive in question. Pick "Properties"
3.Select the "Tools" tab
4.In the Error-checking area, click <Check Now>.

If your external hard drive does not show up here, what I suggest is that you go into your control panel and manually uninstall your external drive. This is how you do that if you're running Windows 7:

Go to Control Panel click on "System & Security", in the window after that under "System" click "Device Manager" and then double click "Disk Drives" in the new window that opens. You should be able to see your external hard drive there. Right click and select "uninstall".

After you've done that, plug the USB cable from the hard drive back in and see if it asks you to install it. If that does not happen, leave it plugged in and reboot the system to see if the new hardware installation wizard comes up. If it doesn't, you know that your drive is physically damaged. Geek Squad or a proper computer technician is the only way to go.

Thanx for the help Mr. G

My Comp. does not recognise the external HD when connected. The HD is totally dead. Time to get another one.

 

[Bi-honar]

btw word of advice, External USBs are the past brother, get Dropbox / Google Drive / SkyDrive ... peace of mind.

Are these services safe for business files Pooya jaan?