My new external hard disk has died!

[dantan]

I bought a Toshiba Canvio 3TB external hard disk drive a few months ago. Was able to power it up and back up a whole lot of stuff on my Windows 7 desktop.

After not using it for a few months I wanted to back up more stuff. But when I try connecting it, no response.

Computer doesn't recognize it. I can't find it and there are no sounds or vibrations coming from the box.

Can anyone advice?

[rowdy]

Externally powered?  Is the power brick working?  Can you try a different power brick?

Can this be disassembled?  Could be a faulty USB (?) interface, or something wrong with the enclosure.

Disassembled you should be able to put the HDD into a computer and see if it can be accessed there, but will probably void any warranty you have.

[dantan]

Externally powered?  Is the power brick working?  Can you try a different power brick?

Can this be disassembled?  Could be a faulty USB (?) interface, or something wrong with the enclosure.

Disassembled you should be able to put the HDD into a computer and see if it can be accessed there, but will probably void any warranty you have.

The power brick is warm but not hot, so it seems to be functioning normally.

Toshiba Canvio doesn't have screws to dissamble.

When it was working the HD enclosure was warm and made a bit of sonud. Now the HDD is cold and makes no sound.

I can't ask for warranty because there's lots of private stuff on the drive apart from my work backups. You can guess what it is.

[tp4tissue]

Externally powered?  Is the power brick working?  Can you try a different power brick?

Can this be disassembled?  Could be a faulty USB (?) interface, or something wrong with the enclosure.

Disassembled you should be able to put the HDD into a computer and see if it can be accessed there, but will probably void any warranty you have.

The power brick is warm but not hot, so it seems to be functioning normally.

Toshiba Canvio doesn't have screws to dissamble.

When it was working the HD enclosure was warm and made a bit of sonud. Now the HDD is cold and makes no sound.

I can't ask for warranty because there's lots of private stuff on the drive apart from my work backups. You can guess what it is.

LOLOL...

i don't think anyone would bother Checking your files when they get your drive.. the service center gets thousands and thousands of disks

if it's under warranty , just get it replaced...

if it's the FILES that you really want.. chances are the drive is still good, just pop the enclosure..

there should be a youtube vid on how to do that.. if there are no screws.. it's just pressure clips.

[IvanIvanovich]

I buy externals more often than internal since they are cheaper 8/10 times I go to buy a drive. In general the drive inside is the same as a regular bare production drive and sometimes actually has a longer warranty that way which I find humorous. I would just open it up as well typically... more often than not it's the usb/sata bridgeboard that failed. I assume you have one of 3.5" models since you are talking about a power brick. If it's one of the 2.5" models you might not be able to attach to PC internal as Toshiba started making the usb3 directly on the disk controller instead of using a bridgeboard, so they are not even possible to attach internally to sata.

[microsoft windows]

I would recommend shooting your new external hard disk repeatedly with a 50 caliber machine gun to get revenge on it.

[bueller]

Externally powered?  Is the power brick working?  Can you try a different power brick?

Can this be disassembled?  Could be a faulty USB (?) interface, or something wrong with the enclosure.

Disassembled you should be able to put the HDD into a computer and see if it can be accessed there, but will probably void any warranty you have.

Just a word of warning, this can sometimes be a bit of a chore. I had to restore some data off a friends external after the bridge board died and when I put it into Windows there was no partition info available. Had to do a partition recovery so I'm guessing some boards store some file system info on the interface board.

[berserkfan]

I would recommend shooting your new external hard disk repeatedly with a 50 caliber machine gun to get revenge on it.

I would happily do that to Microsoft Windows. (Not you personally; I mean that crap product that comes out of some corporate sewage.)

[fohat.digs]

My Asus motherboard is very obstreperous with regard to its USB 3.0 connections.

If this is a 3.0 drive, try plugging and unplugging it into, and out of, more than one port, hot and cold.

Sometimes I find that these problems appear and disappear at random.

[microsoft windows]

I would recommend shooting your new external hard disk repeatedly with a 50 caliber machine gun to get revenge on it.

I would happily do that to Microsoft Windows. (Not you personally; I mean that crap product that comes out of some corporate sewage.)

Don't do it to Windows--do it to Macs instead. They're even ****tier and are sold with an even larger profit margin.

[berserkfan]

I would recommend shooting your new external hard disk repeatedly with a 50 caliber machine gun to get revenge on it.

I would happily do that to Microsoft Windows. (Not you personally; I mean that crap product that comes out of some corporate sewage.)

Don't do it to Windows--do it to Macs instead. They're even ****tier and are sold with an even larger profit margin.

can't tell you how happy I was when ubuntu came out.

But years later, ubuntu is still on the fringe. Very sad. The world needs to stop using ****tows and Fackintosh. It's just giving money to companies that only want to exploit and milk you.

[dorkvader]

i don't think anyone would bother Checking your files when they get your drive.. the service center gets thousands and thousands of disks

if it's under warranty , just get it replaced...

if it's the FILES that you really want.. chances are the drive is still good, just pop the enclosure..

there should be a youtube vid on how to do that.. if there are no screws.. it's just pressure clips.

We didn't get "thousands" if disks a week, like dedicated HDD places, but you would be surprised what the service center techs will go through and that's all I'm going to say.

I mean sometimes it's crazy, what people bring in. Old guy with laptop: on and still playing porn, porn on people's desktop etc etc. The worst they'll do is chuckle about it.

[osi]

Try an different USB cable. I racked my brain troubleshooting a similar situation only to find out the USB cable was faulty.

Also try and use a cable as close to the original cable length as you can. Some bridges require a good amount of power, especially if the drive requires no external power. The extra length could steal just enough juice not to power the drive correctly.

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

Perhaps the hard disk simply came loose from it's SATA connection to the bridge? Would explain all your symptoms...

I sincerely recommend you do some exploratory surgery (aka break open the enclosure). Otherwise all we can do is guess at the problem...

[cmadrid]

send it to me and I'll let you know if I can recover your pr0..files!

[jdcarpe]

For some reason, I keep reading the title of this thread as "ETERNAL hard disk" )

Sometimes drives just die. I had a brand new WD that I never installed until it was already past the warranty expiration, that only worked for like a week.

[microsoft windows]

I would recommend shooting your new external hard disk repeatedly with a 50 caliber machine gun to get revenge on it.

I would happily do that to Microsoft Windows. (Not you personally; I mean that crap product that comes out of some corporate sewage.)

Don't do it to Windows--do it to Macs instead. They're even ****tier and are sold with an even larger profit margin.

can't tell you how happy I was when ubuntu came out.

But years later, ubuntu is still on the fringe. Very sad. The world needs to stop using ****tows and Fackintosh. It's just giving money to companies that only want to exploit and milk you.

That's why you should use Windows 98. Microsoft isn't making any money off of that anymore.

[berserkfan]

I would recommend shooting your new external hard disk repeatedly with a 50 caliber machine gun to get revenge on it.

I would happily do that to Microsoft Windows. (Not you personally; I mean that crap product that comes out of some corporate sewage.)

Don't do it to Windows--do it to Macs instead. They're even ****tier and are sold with an even larger profit margin.

can't tell you how happy I was when ubuntu came out.

But years later, ubuntu is still on the fringe. Very sad. The world needs to stop using ****tows and Fackintosh. It's just giving money to companies that only want to exploit and milk you.

That's why you should use Windows 98. Microsoft isn't making any money off of that anymore.

And criminals are. via zombie-comandeered unsupported full-of-backdoor exploit Win98 computers. 

[tp4tissue]

I would recommend shooting your new external hard disk repeatedly with a 50 caliber machine gun to get revenge on it.

I would happily do that to Microsoft Windows. (Not you personally; I mean that crap product that comes out of some corporate sewage.)

Don't do it to Windows--do it to Macs instead. They're even ****tier and are sold with an even larger profit margin.

can't tell you how happy I was when ubuntu came out.

But years later, ubuntu is still on the fringe. Very sad. The world needs to stop using ****tows and Fackintosh. It's just giving money to companies that only want to exploit and milk you.

Fools.. I've never paid for a copy of windows in my life..

[microsoft windows]

I would recommend shooting your new external hard disk repeatedly with a 50 caliber machine gun to get revenge on it.

I would happily do that to Microsoft Windows. (Not you personally; I mean that crap product that comes out of some corporate sewage.)

Don't do it to Windows--do it to Macs instead. They're even ****tier and are sold with an even larger profit margin.

can't tell you how happy I was when ubuntu came out.

But years later, ubuntu is still on the fringe. Very sad. The world needs to stop using ****tows and Fackintosh. It's just giving money to companies that only want to exploit and milk you.

Fools.. I've never paid for a copy of windows in my life..

Show Image

Neither have I. Windows 98 has been free for quite a long time!

[dorkvader]

Neither have I. Windows 98 has been free for quite a long time!

i'm interested in getting a legit copy of W98 for free. All the free versions I could find are pirated.

Fools.. I've never paid for a copy of windows in my life..

Show Image

If it came pre-loaded on a laptop, you paid for it.

[dantan]

I think I'm going to have to admit defeat and turn it in to the warranty people. I don't have a good experience with warranty service though.