Is My External Hard Drive On It's Way Out? :(

harris1986 · 27 Sep 2006 at 07:07

Ok guys this is the problem i'm having with my current Maxtor Usb 2.0 external hard drive, basically when ever i plug it and turn it on i get the following error message after a good 5mins of it going round and round in circles "E:\ is not accessible, the request could not be performed because of an I/O error".

could this mean the hard drive is shot or about to be? i hope not as i have a lot of vital files on there!

smids · 27 Sep 2006 at 09:23

Hmm - maybe the controller board on the drive is failing or the box is, but something is definitely failing there.

harris1986 · 27 Sep 2006 at 10:27

eeeep not what i want lol, i'l have to try and get all my info on to my comp somehow and then take a little look see at it! i just hope i'm able to get it to transfer my files

i have a few possible solutions i found on the net and i'l try my other usb2 cable to see if this is faulty!

smids · 27 Sep 2006 at 10:29

harris1986 said:
eeeep not what i want lol, i'l have to try and get all my info on to my comp somehow and then take a little look see at it! i just hope i'm able to get it to transfer my files

i have a few possible solutions i found on the net and i'l try my other usb2 cable to see if this is faulty!

Yeah, the cable is the first thing I'd check (well the whole box itself is). I'd remove it from the enclosure and check it out (unless a prebuilt - in whuch case try to get the data off and RMA).

harris1986 · 27 Sep 2006 at 11:47

yeah it's a pre-built unfortunately, will change cable - try get data off, then open her up

harris1986 · 27 Sep 2006 at 18:00

ok i opend the drive up and booted connecting it directly to my hard drive and i can access it and can get it to read the disk, but it keeps saying that it's not formatted, but all my vital data is on there

smids · 27 Sep 2006 at 18:09

Right - don't do anything else. Disconnect it and get a recovery program (a quick search of this forum as there are a few threads on this. This should be able to recover most data as it is still working. Then connect it back up and try a recovery. Do not write or anything to the HDU.

harris1986 · 27 Sep 2006 at 18:11

excellent i hope, u know any off the top of your head? whats odds on me being able to get it back?

smids · 27 Sep 2006 at 18:14

Sorry, don't know any off the top of my head. The programs recommended by many users here usually are able to recover 90% of data where the user hasn't written anything to the disk since the problem/failure.

EDIT: Get data back trial will tell you if the data is there, and if you buy it, it will recover the files. http://www.runtime.org/products.htm

Easy recovery pro.

pc inspector file recovery

harris1986 · 27 Sep 2006 at 20:04

think it's a dead loss smids

can't even access the drive via getdataback! this sux hardcore rear end!

smids · 27 Sep 2006 at 21:07

- sorry to hear that. I think it is the controller board. Keep the drive and try to source another controller board for it. It definitely sounds like something along those lines, seeing as it was an I/O failure and the drive still spins up. You may yet be able to retrieve the data.

harris1986 · 28 Sep 2006 at 14:44

would any IDE-USB 2.0/1.1 converter do the trick or would it have to have the controller board? as i have sourced one from another e-tailor?

smids · 28 Sep 2006 at 14:48

harris1986 said:
would any IDE-USB 2.0/1.1 converter do the trick or would it have to have the controller board? as i have sourced one from another e-tailor?

You connected the drive directly via an IDE/SATA cable, yes? By controller board, I mean the board on the hard drive itself (the green PCB on the base). This can be replaced but it has to be an exact same model or else it won't work.

If you didn't connect the drive via IDE/SATA cable, then trying what you suggest might work... I just can't be sure though as it might not be the USB controller board that failed.

harris1986 · 28 Sep 2006 at 15:00

i connected the drive directly to my motherboard via a ide cable yes, and it showed that there was 76gb free of my 80gb hard disk and asked if i wanted to formatt the disk (ofcourse i said no).

so i need a exact same maxtor controller board for my external? damn this could be hard to find!

smids · 28 Sep 2006 at 15:28

harris1986 said:
i connected the drive directly to my motherboard via a ide cable yes, and it showed that there was 76gb free of my 80gb hard disk and asked if i wanted to formatt the disk (ofcourse i said no).

so i need a exact same maxtor controller board for my external? damn this could be hard to find!

No - I didn't realise the controller board on the drive was ok. There is hope yet! The drive seems to be working ok (not well as obviously you'd see your data there!) but the fact it is working means there is hope. Umm, try different programs for recovery - the data is physically there, it's just a matter of finding something to read it.

harris1986 · 28 Sep 2006 at 18:20

ooo

, so u think just keep trying different programmes with my hard disk connected via ide cable?

smids · 28 Sep 2006 at 18:25

harris1986 said:
ooo , so u think just keep trying different programmes with my hard disk connected via ide cable?

Yes - and whatever you do, do not write anything to the drive!

harris1986 · 28 Sep 2006 at 19:41

smids i love

more than you could ever know

if you were here i would honestly kiss you! thankyou for your faith your the only one to help me and keep posting back to me, the data is currently downloading to my desktop folder from the drive

YOUR A SAINT

smids · 28 Sep 2006 at 19:47

Heh, always happy to help.

.

Now, good bit of advice - don't buy another maxtor until Seagate redo their manufacturing plants/bring in a new SeaMax drive which should be better!

harris1986 · 28 Sep 2006 at 19:57

roar

smiling like a cheshire cat haha, na maxtor = :mad:

i was young naive and in need of direct haha, think i mite just do my own external hard drive would be easier and probably better and safer! also can use my external sata port on my p5b deluxe too