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Jan 24th, 2007
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Hard Disk Totally Dead

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Hello,

I have a Maxtor 5000Le 80GB external unit. I am running Windows XP Pro. I've had this unit for years and it has been great. About a month ago my computer locked when booting and after checking out all my external hardware, I found out that this unit had caused the problem. It seemed that the usb port or the cable was the problem. When I unplugged the usb, plugged it into another port, and even replugged it into the original port all of a sudden it started working again. It has been working fine since then until today. . . Now the problem is: . . . . Windows boots just fine. . it just doesn't recognize this external hard drive at all. The hard drive is not making any noise at all, the green light on the unit is turned on showing that the unit is powered up. . .just no noise. I tried it with a new usb cord and still nothing. It's like an internal switch is out or maybe the internal usb connector on the unit is damaged or something. Please help. This unit has years and years of information in it and I really need to be able to get to it.

Thank you,

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kevin_476 is offline Offline
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since Jan 2007
Jan 25th, 2007
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Re: Hard Disk Totally Dead

Did you try to open your external box with a drive, and connect your drive directly to your computer (slave it) if you'll see it in windows, that means problem with a box
if you still wont see drive in windows, that means problem with a drive.
Also, if you are saying drive isn't making any noise, make sure it’s spinning up
listen to the box when you press power button. And unfortunately if you still face problems then I guess you must contact a data recovery Lab. One I know is
SAlvageData Recovery Lab INC, an ISO 9001 company and here is the address of the lab: -76 Progress Drive, Corporate Park, and Stamford, CT 06902. My friend has faced dangerous problems regarding data recovery and we have seen how this lab has given best result and recovered data. You can also. May be this will help.
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logan_657 is offline Offline
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since Jan 2007
Jun 6th, 2007
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Re: Hard Disk Totally Dead

A much cheaper option to sending it off to a data recovery service (usually costing a couple thousand dollars) is to use CopyCatX. CopyCatX will allow you to make a duplicate of your failing drive as long as you can get it to power up. Unlike other drive duplication programs on the market, CopyCatX is fault tolerant. It can work around bad blocks on damaged drives and even drives that are going into the click of death to make duplicate to a good drive. Try that with other programs and they'll lock up or fail as soon as they come across a bad block. You can download CopyCatX from SubRosaSoft.com's website, here. Should that fail, you might want to look into a data recovery service, but keep in mind that most charge several thousand dollars for the service. Just another reason that a good backup is worth much more then the money spent on the required equipment.
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MacJunkie is offline Offline
16 posts
since Dec 2006
Feb 13th, 2008
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Re: Hard Disk Totally Dead

HELLO
A good peace of software that i use is harddrive regenerator which can be bought in most shops on the internet for about 30 or 40 pounds.
Place the hard drive regenerator disc in the cd dvd drive and boot from the disc and it will repair all your bad sectors on your harddrive and you will still have all your data on the hard drive too.
Job done mate
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Selwyn is offline Offline
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since Feb 2008
Feb 13th, 2008
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Re: Hard Disk Totally Dead

The product you recommended is for Windows only. Remapping bad blocks on a volume with data on it isn't a smart move. In addition, remapping bad blocks isn't always the best thing to do. In most cases those bad blocks come back and get worse. It's best to just replace the drive should you start seeing a decent number of bad blocks appearing.
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MacJunkie is offline Offline
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since Dec 2006
Feb 15th, 2008
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Re: Hard Disk Totally Dead

sorry mate i thought it said at the top they were running xp pro
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Selwyn is offline Offline
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since Feb 2008
Feb 15th, 2008
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Re: Hard Disk Totally Dead

Click to Expand / Collapse  Quote originally posted by Selwyn ...
sorry mate i thought it said at the top they were running xp pro
True, it shouldn't have been posted in the Mac forums. However, I'm actually moving this to the hardware forums as this pertains more to hard drives than actual operating system usage.
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John A is offline Offline
5,055 posts
since Apr 2006
Feb 20th, 2008
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Re: Hard Disk Totally Dead

yes mate i agree.
Hard drive regenerator is what you are after kevin , it will repair any bad sectors on the hard drive and you will be able to use the hard drive with no problem.
I have used this software on 3 or 4 hard drives myself and it works every time.
If the hard drive has got a lot of bad sectors it removes them completely , but this is only in bad cases.
Give it a go mate.
Also sorry to say but i have found that the majority of problem hard drives are by maxtor , western digital i would say are one of the best hard drives
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Selwyn is offline Offline
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since Feb 2008
Feb 20th, 2008
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Re: Hard Disk Totally Dead

Also you can right click on my computer click on manage , then go down to the bottom and click on disc management.
See if it is in the list if it is and it say unallocated just right click on it and press format.
Assign it a drive letter and then format it and at the top once it is formatted in the status column it sure say healthy active.
Now on into my computer and the hard drive should be there under the name and drive letter you chose.
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Selwyn is offline Offline
85 posts
since Feb 2008
Feb 25th, 2008
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Re: Hard Disk Totally Dead

"This unit has years and years of information in it and I really need to be able to get to it."
So, that would seem to eliminate formatting.
You need to get this drive out of the case to isolate the problem.
Attach it to your machine via USB adapter or one of the IDE channels, then see if it spins up or is recognized.
All HD manufacturers make diagnostic software which may help if you run into problems.
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hughv is offline Offline
1,132 posts
since Oct 2007

This thread is more than three months old

No one has posted to this discussion for at least three months. Please let old threads die and do not reply to them unless you feel you have something new and valuable to contribute that absolutely must be added to make the discussion complete. Otherwise, please start a new thread in this forum instead.
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