All Questions
Tagged with hard-drive-failure external-hard-drive
36
questions
16
votes
5
answers
10k
views
How to prolong the life of an external hard drive?
In ten years, across several different machines, different companies, and different operating systems I've noticed a trend that external hard drives die long before their internal counterparts. ...
- 4,444
9
votes
4
answers
3k
views
External USB hard drive and risk of internal condensation?
Apparently you can kill a USB hard drive by moving it from a cold to warm environment and powering it up. The killer being internal condensation.
Q1: How real is the risk? What kind of temperatures ...
- 11.4k
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
2TB Seagate External GoFlex external hard drive failure: Is there anything I can do?
I have a 2TB Seagate External GoFlex—which has a Seagate 2TB 9VT156-570 installed—that I’d like to recover the data from. It was working and I was going to make a backup. I bought a SATA docking ...
- 163
6
votes
2
answers
17k
views
Seatool's Short Generic test fails, but Long Generic test passes
I've got a new Seagate Expansion External hard drive, model STEB5000100 (5TB) from Amazon. It is connected to a computer via USB 3.0
Even though it is brand new I decided to run Seatools tests.
It ...
- 163
4
votes
1
answer
147
views
Effect of HDD age on disk failure
I've got an old 1TB Seagate external drive I've been using to backup a laptop for years. The disk started making a periodic noise this morning approx. every second. It's softer than I'd describe as a ...
- 207
4
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Can't access external harddrive in OSX
For some reason i can't access my external HDD anymore. It's not showing up in Finder, although i can see it in the Volumes folder and in Disk Utility app.
When i access the HDD from terminal and try ...
- 41
3
votes
3
answers
3k
views
External hard drive clicks - doesn't read
My external hard drive isn't being read. I can hear the head begin to spin, then click, and stop. The process repeats a couple of times. Then it stops spinning altogether.
I have given the drive to ...
2
votes
2
answers
940
views
Is it true that a hard drive need to be used once in a while to stay alive?
I have heard someone saying that someone else said hard-disks need to be "moved" once in a while, meaning it has to spin or data has to read or written to once in a while or something like that.
I am ...
1
vote
2
answers
40k
views
Can I move a hard disk platter to another hard drive?
My hard disk just started making a ticking sound, and then it stopped spinning. I checked the inside and saw that the r/w head is broken.
Can I just move the platter to another hard drive or will it ...
1
vote
2
answers
184
views
Is this hard-drive beyond recovery? [closed]
A family member dropped a couple of their external hard drives as they were swapping to a new computer.
Needless to say both drives have been ruined, but with different symptoms; the first drive works ...
- 2,363
1
vote
1
answer
10k
views
External HDD Failure: Fell on the ground and now only beeps
My 3,5" portable drive fall on the ground from 40-50cm high.
I connected USB cable to computer. It ran (I heard rotation sound), but the disk not shown under My Computer.
Then disconnected it. While ...
- 439
1
vote
2
answers
2k
views
Something went wrong with external hard-drive, can I get my data back?
I have Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex External Hard Drive (500GB) and today when I plugged it to the laptop, it wasn't detected, and the indicator also remained off, however, I noticed a beep sound at ...
- 1,225
1
vote
2
answers
1k
views
Seagate barracuda 2TB drive not loading/freezing system
A day ago, the drive would fail to copy certain files and had thought that this was a problem of the OS; later however, the system would only recognize the drive at certain times and so had to ...
- 171
1
vote
1
answer
45
views
WD External Drive Stopped Working - Are there any Non-Destructive Diagnostic Options? What's the Best Course Of Action?
I'm having problems with my Western Digital My Passport 4TB External Drive.
This model, specifically: WDBYFT004BBK-0A
I was in the process of cross-backing-up data between my live setup (laptop), my ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
368
views
Skipping unreadable files from damaged USB harddisk (Windows)
I have a USB connected harddisk of which many (1000s) files can not be read. The problem is, these files seem randomly distributed over the drive, and it takes a very long time (over an hour) before ...
- 113