Hello, I have a Maxtor 5000Le 80GB external unit. I am running Windows XP Pro. I've had this unit for years and it has been great. About a month ago my computer locked when booting and after checking out all my external hardware, I found out that this unit had caused the problem. It seemed that the usb port or the cable was the problem. When I unplugged the usb, plugged it into another port, and even replugged it into the original port all of a sudden it started working again. It has been working fine since then until today. . . Now the problem is: . . . . Windows boots just fine. . it just doesn't recognize this external hard drive at all. The hard drive is not making any noise at all, the green light on the unit is turned on showing that the unit is powered up. . .just no noise. I tried it with a new usb cord and still nothing. It's like an internal switch is out or maybe the internal usb connector on the unit is damaged or something. Please help. This unit has years and years of information in it and I really need to be able to get to it. Thank you,
You have 2 options. The first one: If you still got a warranty, then return it to the store and let them send it to the manufacturer to repair it. The 2nd one: Open the case of the external HDD. You'll see a harddisk connected with power plug and IDE plug. Remove both of those plugs and get the HDD out of the case. Then plug in into your computer using IDE and power cables (using the harddrive internal). EDIT: There a several different types of external harddisks. Connected from USB to power and IDE, and solded on the board. If it is solded, then DON'T force it. Just leave it then. You can only remove the harddisk if it is connected in this way:
I've seen some external HDDs that where connected with IDE and Power cable that went trough a circuit board, leading it to a USB cable. But that is different for each brand.
My last external hdd was 160gb from a maker called gericom, inside was a Samsung sp160 spinpoint IDE hdd, i think most are IDE, dont see why they wouldent be, i suppose modern external hdd's will use SATA now tho.
Did you try to open your external box with a drive, and connect your drive directly to your computer (slave it) if you'll see it in windows, that means problem with a box if you still wont see drive in windows, that means problem with a drive. Also, if you are saying drive isn't making any noise, make sure it’s spinning up listen to the box when you press power button. And unfortunately if you still face problems then I guess you must contact a data recovery Lab. One I know is SAlvageData Recovery Lab INC, an ISO 9001 company and here is the address of the lab: -76 Progress Drive, Corporate Park, and Stamford, CT 06902. My friend has faced dangerous problems regarding data recovery and we have seen how this lab has given best result and recovered data. You can also. May be this will help.
