External HDD problem... broken?

Afran

Afran

Afran

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6 Oct 2008
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As topic, just trying to figure out if my external hdd is completely broken or wtf is going on with it :p

So it's a Seagate "FreeAgent Desk" 600B external drive and have had it connected to a smart tv where it worked just fine, it was then used in a computer several days later still working fine in order to transfer something to it to then play on the tv, however at this point it was no longer recognised by the tv or the computer. I've now got it in another computer and it's not working here either.

Could use assistance in diagnosis here, just a few things of note

- the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" does appear when it's plugged in, with "Eject FreeAgent"
- according to "Properties" on the drive "this device is working properly"
- if the computer is booted with the drive plugged in, it'll take a long time to boot as it appears it's reading hdd's in the wrong order (or something like that, I googled it!)
- I have another external hdd that works just fine and given this one worked on another computer I don't think it's bios related (as the above note could indicate)

I could possibly provide more information if I know what will help/how to get the info :)

Any help appreciated!
 
Ah ok, still, wouldn't want to go to that extreme straight away, would seem like skipping some more simple ways to test it no? and I'd prolly screw up testing it that way anyway :p info I posted is probably just quite noob'ish but could provide more if I knew the way
 
It does show up in Disk Management, screenshot here of what it shows; RcrADMx.jpg.png

So it reckons it has 100% free space (shouldn't be the case, but since I can't seem to access it...) & don't know what the 47MB capacity drive is (only shows when I plug the external hdd in also)

As for in bios, what would I be looking for ? Sorry just kinda noob at that, know how to get there just not how to navigate the bios very well or what things stand for :p
 
Ok :p seems like my case wouldn't be re-attachable though so I'd like to leave that as a last resort to keep it as an actual external hdd if possible, is there anything I can try doing before that?
 
Hmm, had roughly 220gb of stuff on it. I don't have copies, buuuut, I can't think of anything overly important that I'd miss upon a format. As for format that it's in, no idea? Heh. How to format it and/or potentially recover data?
 
Oh, as of your reaction to it not being a GoFlex and asking if I could format I thought it perhaps an actual option, I just don't know how to do it ^^ So I'd like to visit that option first if it's doable before removing the enclosure
 
Ah ok, so removing from enclosure last step for sure? Then I just hook it up like a normal HDD? I'd have two HDD's then if so, no idea how to set that up
 
Ok, thanks. As my current HDD is actually old and beginning to perform slowly (not talking about the external one here), I'd actually replace my current HDD with this external (made internal) HDD entirely, is that a possibility? Obviously given a format and Windows 7 installation.

I'm also looking at purchasing an SSD (this one to be exact;http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-162-SA&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2394), would I be able to run those in a setup like using the SSD for boot-up/games I'm playing at the time with easy access to the external (made internal) HDD for storing random crap & recording with FRAPS to? Will make another thread if necessary as gone a little off-topic here :)
 
Ah, regarding the recording sorry I wasn't clear there, I'd be wanting to play the game I'm recording on the SSD, but be frapsing to a storage drive as from what I've read and experienced it's hard on performance to technically fraps the game you're recording if it's installed on the same HDD as fraps it's self is, so that was my idea behind that

One thing I just noticed is that I'm unsure of the sata cable situation. I'll be running the SSD in sata2 as my pc doesn't support sata 3 (still buying the sata3 backwards compatible to sata 2 ssd for the future) and whilst I do have a spare sata cable here in my hands I have no idea if it's a sata 1 or sata 2 cable, and if sata 2 cables even exist, thus if this one would do the job for the sata2 connection just fine, information I found was confusing on this :p the spare cable I have here just has this written across it "LinkTek AWM E301571 STYLE 21149 30V 80C VW-1 Serial ATA 26 AWG" just want to know if that's the *wrong* cable so I order the correct one with the ssd if so, sata 2 cable that is not going to use sata 3 at the moment.
 
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