External HDD problem... broken?

Afran

Afran

Afran

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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!
 
Theres a normal (internal) hard drive within it, an external hard drive is simply a hard drive within an enclosure

Half the time your external fails its caused by the USB to SATA pcb that's inside the enclosure, so if you take it out and hook it directly to the sata ports inside your computer you'll see if it is indeed the pcb or dead drive.


As for reading hard drive in the wrong order that's down to BIOS, so restart your computer and press whatever you're asked to do so to enter bios (usually delete key or f2) and make sure it's in the correct boot sequence

Although that's probably fine it'll just be taking a while trying to read all the devices but obviously if it's not working it'll just wait for nothing and hopefully eventually boot
 
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
 
When you boot up does the drive show in your BIOS?
Does the drive show in Disk Management?


Most hard drive enclosures are easy to open especially Seagates.
 
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
 
If it's detected by windows then it'll be detected by bios :p

Right click the 465.71GB partition and click open/explore what happens?

Also "change drive letter" as it appears it's not mounted?
 
I'd try hooking it up directly

Google a video, it's really easy to do

Just take the bottom out, the top can pull off then it's just opening it taking it out and using it internally.
 
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?
 
Oh, for some reason i was under the impression you had a GoFlex

How full is it? do you have copies of everything on it? could you do a format?
 
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?
 
From what i've read here it doesn't seem like you have much option now beyond taking the HDD out and getting it connected internally.

If windows recognises it but can't do anything with it then my thinking would be that the drive itself is probably fine but there might be something wrong with the enclosure.
 
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