Maxtor external not being recognized

[msingi]

I own a maxtor 120gb 7200 ulta ata/133 hard drive. I have used it for the last 3 months without any problems. I am using it for video editing purposes and have large files on it. This morning, my computer would not recognize it. It comes back with E: not accessible. I checked the plugs. Nothing. It is connected through USB to my laptop with XP and cannot run PowerMax since I don't have a floppy drive. I am new to PC world (ex Mac-user) and I am afraid that I might have lost 3 long months of work. I have tried pluggin in a different port, re-installing MaxBlast 3 and nothing. Please help me!!!

 

[IslandCustom]

Are you sure the drive letter hasn't changed to something other than E:? Sometimes with USB, another device will cause letters to be rearranged, and sometimes two devices will be assigned the same letter. Right-click My Computer, left click Manage, and check your drives to make sure the Maxtor is the only device with E: assigned to it. If there is another device with the same letter, you can right click it and change the drive letter manually.

 

[lesgray]

Just out of curiousity, does any other USB device work in the laptop's USB port(s)?


Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[msingi]

Yes, I have a mouse in a usb port and it works fine.

 

[lesgray]

The drive is spinning, yes?

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[msingi]

The drive did make noises so I guess it is spinning. I took it to Compusa (where I bought it from) and a computer technician and both have confirmed that the hard drive is dead and there is no way to get the data unless I take to data recovery place and put out $1000.00.

 

[lesgray]

Yup, thats what I was thinking.

If you are a student, there are some drive recovery places that will recover the data for very cheap. I'm not sure anymore, because it was awhile ago that I saw this, but I believe the it was CBL -

http://www.cbltech.com/

I can't remember what the deal was, but I remember it was cheap.

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[mainegeek]

Hello msingi,
Have you installed the software/drivers that came with the drive?

 

[IslandCustom]

Mainegeek, did you read this thread? That's been tried and it turns out the drive is dead. Problem "solved."

 

[mainegeek]

Hello IslandCustom,
Yes I did read the thread. I didn't see it mentioned anywhere in the thread that mfg. supplied device drivers had been re-installed. Only Maxblast 3 which is a drive utility for preping the drive for use.

Msingi,
If the drive is spinning then you may have some luck recovering your data using GetDataBack. It is not free though.

http://www.runtime.org/gdb.htm

 

[msingi]

Thank you lesgray. I will contact the data recovery place.

Mainegeek, the drivers that came with the machine is only for windows 98 or mac so I called the manufacturer and wrote to them but no answer. But, I would think that the computer technicians would have figured that out.

I guess there is no hope but to call the data recovery place.

Thanks for helping.

 

[lesgray]

Found a couple of the articles I had read on this subject:

http://www.hubcanada.com/story_8666_21

http://www.wavian.com/web-resources.html

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com