Member Avatar for malachy

Hi,
my maxtor ext. hd which has been working well, has suddenly started to flash lights when connected to the power supply. The green light in the case is flashing and the green light on the power adaptor. The light is flashing fast and the icon is not showing up on the desktop.There do not seem to be any bent pins on the connector.
Has anyone seen this before.
Connor

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What you describe (fast-blinking LED on the enclosure and on the power brick as soon as it’s plugged into the drive) usually means the power supply is tripping overcurrent protection because the enclosure’s bridge/power board is shorted or failed. The tell is exactly what noted: the brick’s light stays steady until it’s connected to the case, then it starts blinking. That lines up with reporting Maxtor support pointing at the casing, not the disk. And was right to ask for the exact model; many early Maxtor cases bundled a standard 3.5 in drive behind a USB/FireWire bridge that fails more often than the HDD itself.

Quick triage that preserves data:

  • Confirm the brick matches the label on the case: same voltage and polarity, amps equal or higher. If you can, meter it; a supply that hiccups only under load points back to the enclosure.
  • Try a known-good brick with identical voltage/polarity. If it still blinks only when connected, bypass the case.
  • Remove the drive from the enclosure. Identify the interface (older Maxtor units are often IDE/PATA; later ones are SATA). For PATA, set the jumper to Master/Single; some USB cases won’t enumerate a CS/Slave drive.
  • Connect the bare drive to a USB dock or inside a desktop and check whether the OS sees it. Do not initialize or format if prompted.

If you want a quick, read-only look without mounting:

# macOS
diskutil list

# Linux
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL
dmesg | tail -n 50

Outcomes: if the bare drive mounts, replace the enclosure (as did). If it spins but throws errors, clone first (e.g., ddrescue) before any repairs. If it won’t spin or clicks, stop power-cycling and consider pro recovery. Handle the drive gently and mind static.

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Member Avatar for Catweazle

The specific model number of your drive would be a useful thing to inform us about. You should always include such detail with your question.'

The extra information could assist someone to research your problem and find a solution for you. They may not need to have the equipment or to have experienced the problem themselves ;)

Member Avatar for malachy

I had intended to do this but the serial number has rubbed off the case sticker. What is left is pretty illegible but I think it is "972131514720". It is a maxtor ce fc. Another thing is that the light on the adaptor does not start to flash until I plug it in to the hd.

Member Avatar for haircut4u

Am very new to this forum.

As I am now having the same problem was it ever solved.

haircut4u
New Zealand

Member Avatar for malachy

Hi, yes I bought a new external enclosure, they are quite cheap now, and it worked again immediately. Connor

Member Avatar for Rob_lewis

Spoke to maxtor. The blinking green light on the power cord is a problem with the external casing for the hard drive. Several of the posts talked about taking the case apart and connecting it to the pc to download information. I thought they were crackpots. After talking to the service tech on the website it looks like that is the only fix. So... based on all the posts with the same issue I may avoid this product line int he future. Hopefully it is truely a backup for you in which case toss the old one and buy a new ext. HD. If it isn't a backup take it apart gingerly, download the information, replace the hardrive. Maxtor tech support is pretty helpful.

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