It was brought to my attention a few months ago, that USB drives
dislike (spelled H A T E) being left attached while powering down the
puter. The result is basically a wiping of the drive including the FAT
needed to access the drive. If, however, it was just a crash and if
you can get the unit to power up and spin, you *MAY* be able to
retrieve the data using software-driven data recovery. The best bet,
though, is remove it from the case and hook it directly to an IDE
cable from inside the puter or another puter as a slave drive, leaving
it unmounted and open to air so it can "breathe". Sometimes hard
drives will overheat and allowing them air currents for cooling will
render them operable long enough to save the data on them.
If you choose to try data recovery, post a note here specifying the
file system (FAT32 or NTFS) and I may have software you can try.
Mysterion
On 27 Apr 2005 06:54:04 -0500, "Softee" <DooDee@DooDa.com> wrote:
>I recently fried a 250GB drive. Nothing really important
>was on it.... just a bunch of ripped DVDs the only thing
>lost was time.
>
>When you power it up, do you get any noise from it? If
>you don't, the problem might be in the USB interface. It
>could also be that the power supply is bad. These two
>things would be the easiest to rectify
>
>There were alot of ideas I found while searching with
>Google. The one I tried was switching the drive board
>with another in a 250GB drive I'd bought at the same time.
>That didn't work so I assume I fried the motor. All gone.
>
>In my search I did find a couple outfits that sell replacement
>boards for drives. If you feel competent in opening the drive,
>you can get all the nessessary numbers and find out if you
>can get another board. This can be tricky, as the boards
>are actually micro-adjusted for each drive. You might get
>lucky though.
>
>Another one, and it might sound funny, was to stick the drive
>in the freezer overnight. Some had success with this. DO
>NOT PLACE THE ENTIRE UNIT IN THE FREEZER!!! If you do,
>condensation may form on the power supply. You'll have to
>take it apart, and remove the drive. It's also a safe idea to
>remove the circuit board on the drive. To do this you'll need
>to go to Radio Shack and get a mini tool set that has Torx
>bits. The one I bought has sizes T8, T10, and T15. One of them
>was th right size. I forget which one. You don't have to worry
>about condensation with the drive itself (minus the board) as
>these things are air tight, and dust and moisture free.
>
>If you planned on getting another drive anyway, see if you can
>get the exact same drive. If you think it's the USB interface, or
>the power supply, you might be able to just swap out the drive.
>External drives are nothing more than a plain hard drive,
>in a case, with a power supply, connected to a USB interface.
>
>I always thought it was strange that Maxtor doesn't sell
>replacement parts for drives like this. Guess they want you
>to buy another drive, and go the very expensive data recovery
>route. Go figure.
>
>I would deffinitely research these ideas on your own and get
>comfortable with what you're going to be doing first, before
>diving in.
>
>Feel free to write back with any info. I can try to help you.
>
>Softee
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