external hard drive does not recognized

[laoadam]

Hi,
I have a 2T Fantom external hard drive used for a few years. It was good, but just can't be recognized today.
The phenomenon is:

My laptop's USB port all good for other USN key or hard driver;

This HD can't be recognized by two of my laptops one Win7 and one Win10, but it is starting when plugged in (I heard the starting noise) just not shown in computer;

The HD was fully filled with ~300M free space left only.

The Disk Management tool doesn't show the HD either.

Thanks
Adam

 

[Tele-tech]

Does it show up in Device Manager under unknown? Or have a yellow ! beside it(If it does show up at all)?

Maybe see if Diskpart can recognize it. Does it have anything you need to save on it?

 

[goombawaho]

The hard drive may be okay but the drive enclosure may be dead if it is not detected on multiple computers/multiple operating systems. If you have important data on the hard drive, you may want to disassemble the hard drive and get to the bare drive. Then you can plug that drive into a desktop computer or use an adapter (USB to SATA) for a laptop. I would rather use a direct sata connection in a desktop to see if the drive is good or not.

If recognized, get your data off ASAP and then run manufacturer's diagnostic utility AFTER.

If it is not recognized via sata connection, you may have to send it out for data recovery. Everything dies, it's just a matter of when and whether you have a backup.

 

[Stephen_Hawk]

Try using a Linux live environment to check if the problem still persists.