[chula]

yes, it's this hard drive.

the good thing is i've already backed up most of my files on discs.

the bad thing is i have a bunch of new HQ files i downloaded that i haven't made a back up of. (all those Over the Rainbow episodes!)

i have 132 GB worth of files.

my desktop just doesn't recognize the external hard drive anymore

when i plug the USB ... i hear that sound and that's just about it. i tried checking it in windows explorer or Computer Management in Administrative Tools ... nada

so i unplugged the HD and plugged it to my laptop.

won't recognize it either. i get that message that says "F:/ is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" of course, i clicked NO.

is my hard drive dead?????

i was googling earlier and i read some stuff that says sometimes enclosures aren't powerful enough for the hard drive so that could cause why the PCs can't recognize it.

[awdark]

Your not formatted problem is symple, you corrupted your boot record.. So windows has no idea where any of your files are stored... its a book without the table of contents page.

Tell me, does your enclosure have a power cable of its own? If not, is it one of those really small ones with 2 usb cables? 2 usb cables = laptop drive = low power. Power supply of its own for large drives... well it shouldn't be an issue at all.

So in conclusion... its very possible you corrupted the boot sector... but based on your previous experience it might just be almost ready to kick the bucket and its loosing data left and right.

You can use a program like Recover My files to restore it, but it takes much too much time to be worthwhile if you have backups. IMO if you have backups, format and see if it screws up like that again.

[chula]

awdark, my external hard drive has its own power cable.

so i guess the boot sector is corrupted. should i even bother installing this hard drive to my desktop just to double check if i can still "open" this drive?

thanks for telling me about Recover My Files ... i'll use that as my last resort.

[awdark]

Shouldn't make a difference if you have it connected via USB or internal IDE. Should all give the same problem.

[DaRkViEt73]

should i even bother installing this hard drive to my desktop just to double check if i can still "open" this drive?

Absolutely. I would recommend you plug it in on your internal IDE so you can rule out the external HD enclosure as the cause of the problem. A bad and/or failing external HD enclosure can give the appearance of a corrupted boot record.

[CIRee]

UMMM WTF? MBR? thats if you have multiply partition with an OS installed, the master boot record(MBR) is a boot process that looks up the boot table to see which partition it should use for booting. Enought of my mumbling. Your partition is messed up because of disk failure. There are a few programs that fill recovery your files but they are not that great but give it a try.

[chula]

Absolutely. I would recommend you plug it in on your internal IDE so you can rule out the external HD enclosure as the cause of the problem. A bad and/or failing external HD enclosure can give the appearance of a corrupted boot record.

*breathes a BIG SIGH of relief*

i asked my sister's bf to do that and he said that all my files are in there. so the HD is fine.

this means ... the enclosure is dying then. how could that happen though?

this is already my 2nd enclosure. i got the first one from ebay and this from compusa.

any recommendations for a good enclosure?

thanks for all your help everyone

[DaRkViEt73]

this means ... the enclosure is dying then. how could that happen though?

this is already my 2nd enclosure. i got the first one from ebay and this from compusa.

any recommendations for a good enclosure?

thanks for all your help everyone

No I don't have any particular recommendation on enclosures. I just know some of my friends go through more HD enclosures than they do HDs! Price doesn't seem to be a big factor either... one of my friends has gone thru 4 of them and both expensive & cheap ones have given him problems. Last I heard, this 4th one is still working fine. So I guess it's gonna be hit & miss until you stumble on a reliable one. What a horrible purchasing advice I'm giving, I know...

Personally, I think everyone above can give you better recommendations on particular brands of HD enclosures than I can.

[chula]

really? dang ... i guess i have to make another trip to compusa then.

all those times of plugging/unplugging .....

really ... thank you everyone the help.

i swear, soompi's tech forum is the best

and i promise ... i'll back up my files to discs more often now.

[CIRee]

Get a really good one, you get what you paid for. So get the one with dual fans in an aluminum casing.

[dot1q]

UMMM WTF? MBR? thats if you have multiply partition with an OS installed, the master boot record(MBR) is a boot process that looks up the boot table to see which partition it should use for booting. Enought of my mumbling. Your partition is messed up because of disk failure. There are a few programs that fill recovery your files but they are not that great but give it a try.

He probably meant the partition table.

[awdark]

Uh yeah that =\ I just know I messed mine up a lot when I was playing with linux.

I never had a enclosure die on me =\ I have killed drives but enclosure? Hrmm interesting thought. Wonder what could go wrng on one of those... o_oa its just a circuit board...
Edit:
Power supply OF the enclosure maybe? Now that would make sence...

[chula]

update: i got the new enclosure yesterday. so i moved my hard drive in it and i thought everything should be okay.

both desktop and laptop still doesn't recognize the drive

i hear that sound that computers make when you plug in a USB device ... a minute or so later - that disconnecting sound.

i just don't get it. the hard drive was okay and my files were intact when it was in the internal IDE but how come it's not working on a new enclosure?

should i just format it?