Quicksand Fans

I got a Maxtor external hard drive that is not booting. The power light is on, I get an audio signal from the computer but it can't see it, I don't get an icon. Do these things burn out like a computer hard drive does?

And is it possible to retrieve the data.

Several of the DVD avi files are on there in addition to all the WMF of them.

Robert

That doesn't sound good.

Probably the first thing I would do is rule out the enclosure by removing the hard drive and installing it directly in the machine. Hopefully you can cope with the interface IDE/SATA and you have a spare connector/port available.

Good Luck.

Dave

dlodoski wrote:That doesn't sound good.

Probably the first thing I would do is rule out the enclosure by removing the hard drive and installing it directly in the machine. Hopefully you can cope with the interface IDE/SATA and you have a spare connector/port available.

Good Luck.

Dave

That might be beyond me but I can forward the suggestion to someone more capable. Thanks for the input though.

Robert

I once dropped an external HDD off my table while I was rebuilding my system. It had EVERYTHING on it, an now would not work. I ended up sending it to a disaster recovery company that was able to get all my data back, but it cost me around 750 dollars. It sucked, but it was worth it.

Qsvgitguy wrote:I once dropped an external HDD off my table while I was rebuilding my system. It had EVERYTHING on it, an now would not work. I ended up sending it to a disaster recovery company that was able to get all my data back, but it cost me around 750 dollars. It sucked, but it was worth it.

Well 4 of the last dvd's we released have all their AVI files on it... and the $750 would bite having some other company dig them out. Even though it would suck and take a lot of time I might have to re edit them from raw footage again if I can't find a way to get it to work.

All that considered ... those 4 DVD's may not be available for a while. However... all of the individual segments are available on Club MPV as downloads.

I will keep you posted.

Robert

I don't see a happy ending to this. As someone who has replaced literally probably a thousand HD's in the last twenty years I can tell you this much - Maxtor = generally crappy drive. Yeah, I'm sure a data recover operation like OnTrack could get it back for you but I bet it runs well in excess of $750.00 for several DVD's worth of data.

Western Digital makes a neat little external box that has mirrored drives in it. Your computer reads it all as one volume but everything is written to two drives so you have some redundancy. There are lots of others but this is relatively inexpensive, simple, and reliable.

Contact me if you don't have any better luck and maybe we can do something. Hang in there.

Duncan Edwards wrote:I don't see a happy ending to this. As someone who has replaced literally probably a thousand HD's in the last twenty years I can tell you this much - Maxtor = generally crappy drive. Yeah, I'm sure a data recover operation like OnTrack could get it back for you but I bet it runs well in excess of $750.00 for several DVD's worth of data.

Western Digital makes a neat little external box that has mirrored drives in it. Your computer reads it all as one volume but everything is written to two drives so you have some redundancy. There are lots of others but this is relatively inexpensive, simple, and reliable.

Contact me if you don't have any better luck and maybe we can do something. Hang in there.

Well I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.

I just got off the phone with Dave and he said pretty much the same thing.

The silver lining in the clouds is that I should be able to re do most of the AVI's by using the recapture program on Pinnacle per Dave's suggestion. There are two segments that do not have the original project and will no doubt have to be re edited from scratch.

We'll give you a call anyway reguardless .. it's been to long since we heard that Tennessee drawl ...

Robert

Is it the kind that plugs in via a USB port, or the kind that's an internal on a "rack" sort of mount?
Either way, I have to agree with the above posts, it doesn't sound good. Usually when a HD stops booting it's dead.

Mynock wrote:Is it the kind that plugs in via a USB port, or the kind that's an internal on a "rack" sort of mount?
Either way, I have to agree with the above posts, it doesn't sound good. Usually when a HD stops booting it's dead.

It's a USB port.

Perhaps saying that it doesn't boot is not entirely correct. It does turn on but seams to freeze at some point.

Robert

If it is locking up after a certain amount of TIME it might be a heat issue. In that case some heavy-duty cooling might let it run long enough to rescue the relevant files.

Robert wrote:

Mynock wrote:Is it the kind that plugs in via a USB port, or the kind that's an internal on a "rack" sort of mount?
Either way, I have to agree with the above posts, it doesn't sound good. Usually when a HD stops booting it's dead.

It's a USB port.

Perhaps saying that it doesn't boot is not entirely correct. It does turn on but seams to freeze at some point.

Robert