External HDD not spinning - PANIC!

SideWinder · 21 Apr 2008 at 23:31

Okay, i haven't used it for a few months..WD 250Gb i think, an iBook or something like that. Just tried to power it up and nothing is happening...just a faint buzzing noise.

Any ideas?

ih8modem · 22 Apr 2008 at 10:44

not familiar with them myself, but when my external drive refuses to spin up its usually a power issue. Is this one USB powered, AC powered or both ?

One of my external enclosures actually has two power inlets, both driven by usb, (data only flows over one of the two, the other is power only - just to power hungrier 2.5 inch drives.)

AbsenceJam · 22 Apr 2008 at 11:48

I'd try removing it from the enclosure and using the abre drive.

bledd · 22 Apr 2008 at 15:26

don't worry just rma it and restore your backup to the new drive :0

if it's an external enclosure thing, then remove the hard drive from it and plug it in internally (or into an icy box)

Kotu · 24 Apr 2008 at 02:13

I had a similar issue with an old IBM 120GB drive, I tried doing stuff like switching the controller boards to get it working, but like with yours there was just a (faint) buzzing sound when it should be spinning up. Eventually i just gave the drive a hard knock on my computer desk and it came to life. I guess the motor might have just seized due to lack of use.

bledd · 25 Apr 2008 at 13:12

Kotu said:
Eventually i just gave the drive a hard knock on my computer desk and it came to life. I guess the motor might have just seized due to lack of use.

this happened to me with a hard drive in work, the only thing i needed from it was a bat file for making backups (which i'd spent a few hours perfecting) -ironically i'd not backed up the bat file

after failing to get the drive to even post, i was real annoyed, and kicked it across the room, it smashed into a metal filing cabinet.. I plugged it back in and voila it's been working fine since (no errors in smart -not that i really trust smart, but still)