Maxtor Ext. HD clicking from power supply? Help!

[kronus8564]

Alright, so I'm new to this forum, and I do apologize if this is the incorrect forum, or if this question has been answered many times before, but here goes.

I have a Maxtor Personal Storage 3200 external hd and I've owned it for approximately 4 months. I've never had an issue with it until now. I went on a trip to another state and lugged my hd around with me. (It hold ALL of my music as well as countless other school projects and papers.) Worked fine when I got to my destination and all though the trip. I've been home for about 2 months now, and I've been swamped with work, so I haven't had much time to mess with my hd.

The other day I finally got my hd out and plugged it in. The drive will not spin up, and the green light on the front of the case barely lights up. There is a clicking sound coming from the power supply (not to be confused with the drive itself.) Now I've tried searching for the answer, but all I come up with is failing power supplies for desktops, and the 'click of death' for a hd. Again, this clicking is NOT coming from the HD, but rather, the power supply. Also, the green light flickers each time you hear a click. This clicking sound is fairly steady, not too slow, but not incredibly fast either (approx. 2 clicks per second.)

I'm hoping that this is just a power supply problem, but I have no other power supplies that work with the hd. I have a couple that will plug into the unit but will not power it. Is this common? Also, can I crack open the power supply and fix this problem myself? Is there a possibility that there is drive damage?

Once again, I'm sorry if this is in the wrong place, and hopefully someone has an answer for me.

Thanks again,
Kevin

[bobbyraw]

can u connect the hdd to the primary cable as a slave to chek if the drive still work, if thst does then u have to get a new case for the hdd

[kronus8564]

Primary cable as a slave? You'll have to excuse my lack of knowledge. I'm not that well versed in computer stuff. Could you explain how I would do this?

[bobbyraw]

is this a laptop or destop pc u have if desktop open the case and connect the hdd as a sleve to the primary ide cable or as a slave to a sata port if thats what u have

[kronus8564]

Well it's generally used for my laptop, but I suppose I could run it as a slave off of my desktop. However, I only have one hd in my old tower. So I don't know if there will be any ide cables hanging around for me to plug into. Any other things I could try?

[kronus8564]

Uh. Well. I opened up my desktop. And took two connectors that were unused and plugged them into my external hd. I promptly heard a click from somewhere in the tower. Now it won't turn on =(

Help!

[bobbyraw]

ok did u set the jumpers on each hdd the second should be set to slave and the first set to master or master with slave, also the master disk should be at the end of the ide cable. i also suggest that u go into the bios just before the pc boot and ensure the disk are recognized are you have set them. also make sure u are connecting to the primary ide (main boot cable)

[kronus8564]

I'm really not that knowledgeable about computer stuff, so I have no idea what 'setting the jumpers' means. And even if I did, my tower is completely unresponsive now. I plugged the IDE connector into the back of the HD, then plugged in the molex connector to power it, and as soon as I plugged the molex in, I heard a click from somewhere in the tower. Now the tower won't turn on.

[caperjack]

time for local help from someone who knows a bit more than yourself ,before you totally fugg the thing .

[bobbyraw]

did u plug the hdd in with the pc powered on??????????????????????

[kronus8564]

time for local help from someone who knows a bit more than yourself ,before you totally fugg the thing .

Well before I do that, I would like to gain a little more insight on the situation. Even if I have screwed something up, I'd feel a little better about the situation if I gained a little knowledge out of it.

did u plug the hdd in with the pc powered on??????????????????????

And NO I did not. That just seems like a bad idea. I'm not that much of a newb =)

[bobbyraw]

Uh. Well. I opened up my desktop. And took two connectors that were unused and plugged them into my external hd. I promptly heard a click from somewhere in the tower. Now it won't turn on =(
Help

according to this quote, what kind of sound coud u have heard when u connect a hdd if there is no power to the computer. chack the ide cable make sure it's plugged in correctly, some ide cable come with a nothc on the outside and a block pin on the cabe. other done have this and can be incorrectly connected.

[kronus8564]

Well the only connector I unplugged was the molex that went to my cd-rom drive. I used an unused IDE connector to plug into my hdd.

[bobbyraw]

no no
the hdd that was already in the computer does it have 2 ends on it, one pugged into the hdd and a spare one, that's the end you should conn to the second hdd. then the second hdd should be jumper to slave (see image attached) the white block is the jumper look on the hdd for which setting to place the jumper for slave, on your mobo u will have 2 ide channel one for primary and one for secondary, if u only have 1 hdd use the primary for both master and slave.........u must set THE FIRST HDD TO MASTER OR MASTER WITH SLAVE, the ide cable listed is or should be simular too what u have in the pc, the blue end to the mobo, the last connector to the master hdd and the midle one to the slave.