my external hard drive crashed... again!
By amorlife1
@amorlife1 (370)
South Africa
August 30, 2010 4:43pm CST
I have a 500gb external hard drive on which I've got every thing. I've got backups here and there, but most of my stuff is on that drive. Today I couldn't access it. It takes a loooooooong time to bring up My Computers, and when I go to the drive, it asks if I want to format it. This happened before, and I ran scandisk to recover as much as I could from it. I then copied everything off the drive, formatted it, and copied every thing back again. Now, it's doing the same thing.
What am i doing wrong to make it crash? I'm really careful with it...
1 person likes this
5 responses
@hardworkinggurl (37063)
• United States
30 Aug 10
Did you try going back to start up on earlier date first. I believe I understand you have already formatted it so I do not know that this may be possible now. You may want to try that instead of reformatting again.
As it may cause a total crash. Yikes.
1 person likes this
@amorlife1 (370)
• South Africa
31 Aug 10
I haven't formatted it yet... but I can't access it to get the data on it. I'll have to run a scandisk again, and hope I can' recover at least some of the data. I'll need to move everything off and then format it.
@amorlife1 (370)
• South Africa
1 Sep 10
Thanks, I'll try doing this... It's an external hard drive, so my primary harddrive is still fine :)
@pcsourcepoint (631)
• New Zealand
12 Sep 10
In the meantime try to back up your files elsewhere, e.g. on dvd rewritable's, or another drive, or maybe online somewhere.
@amorlife1 (370)
• South Africa
17 Sep 10
Hmmm... online backup. That's a good idea! DO you know of any good online backup sites?
@trishasantos (1297)
• Philippines
31 Aug 10
If it happens always, try go to the manufacturer site, see if it is still under warranty. If it is, your lucky, I think you could have it exchange to a new for free. Try contacting them for more information. Scan for any viruses too in your computer. It may help.
@amorlife1 (370)
• South Africa
31 Aug 10
That's a good idea... but I've checked and it's past its warranty date. So I guess I'll just have to try to recover it, or give it up and buy a new one...
@allyoftherain (7208)
• United States
31 Aug 10
Hard drives are actually really temperamental. Ever had one completely crash and fry on you? I have. Hard drives, external and internal, only last for a certain number of years. And when they're done... they're done. There's also only a 30% chance you'll even be able to get your files back once it freezes.
Methinks your hard drive is acting up because of something you missed in the guidelines. If your hard drive came with a manuel, then read up and see if you can trouble shoot it. If you have no luck there... then it's probably time to find a new hard drive.
@amorlife1 (370)
• South Africa
31 Aug 10
I've had this hard drive for about a year and a half. I think I've been moving it around too much and that's why it crashed. It's an external USB powered hard drive.
You may be right in that it's time to get me another one...
@wingnuts (62)
• Philippines
31 Aug 10
You can try the hard drive's diagnostic software and check if your hard drive needs to be replaced. You can obtain these software from the manufacturer's website of your hard drive. If your hard drive is still under warranty, you can return your drive for a replacement.
@amorlife1 (370)
• South Africa
31 Aug 10
I haven't tried a diagnostic tool... I'll give it a try.
But it's definitely out of warranty.
