Member Avatar for tupacwe

Hey Guys,
I have a 250 GB maxtor external. I have had it for about a year and has always been a pain but I've managed. Anyhow, today I was trying to copy some files over to it but kept getting the cyclic redundancy check error. I decided to turn the drive off and back on again as that usually fixes problems. Well anyhow, when I turned it back it is connected because the little safely remove hardware thing pops up next to the time in the toolbar. The thing is it is now not recognized as a hard drive and I can not acess it. Do you know anything I can do to fix this? I usually just run chkdisk on it to fix problems but I cant even do that since its not showing up as a drive. Please if you know anything I can do I would grealty appreciate it, I really can not afford to lose everything on that drive.
Thanks so much,
Chris

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Quick expert summary and immediate do/don't for : the symptoms you describe (CRC errors while copying, the device appearing as USB but no drive letter, MaxBlast seeing the unit but not the filesystem, and intermittent power) point to either a failing enclosure/interface or a failing drive. Do NOT initialize, format, run write-heavy tools, or repeatedly power-cycle the unit — those actions reduce the chance of a successful recovery.

Non‑destructive diagnostics to try first

  • Swap the USB cable, try a different USB port and a different PC to rule out host/USB problems.
  • Listen: steady spin vs repeating clicks or silence tells you hardware vs electronics.
  • Check Device Manager and Windows Event Viewer for disk/USB I/O errors (these give useful error codes).
  • If comfortable and out of warranty, try the drive outside the enclosure (or in another external dock). Many failures are enclosure electronics/USB bridges; removing the drive and connecting it directly by SATA or with a different USB–SATA adapter can confirm that.

If data matters: image the disk before further attempts

  • Create a full sector image (copy) to another drive using a tool that tolerates bad sectors (GNU ddrescue). Work from a Linux live USB so the failing device isn’t stressed by Windows retries. Example workflow (identify devices first, then run ddrescue):
sudo apt-get install gddrescue
sudo fdisk -l               # find /dev/sdX for the failing disk and destination mount
sudo ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /path/to/backup.img /path/to/backup.log
sudo ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdX /path/to/backup.img /path/to/backup.log
  • Work on the image: use TestDisk to rebuild partitions or PhotoRec/File-carvers for files. Commercial Windows tools (R‑Studio, GetDataBack) can work on images too.

When to stop and call pros

  • If the drive won’t spin, emits clicking, or imaging repeatedly fails, stop and consult a professional data‑recovery service; DIY can make recovery much more expensive. Professional costs vary widely.

Regarding your Dell Dimension 8200 question: most systems will handle drives larger than 250GB, but older BIOSes can require an update or a SATA controller card for booting from very large drives.

Recommended Answers

All 9 Replies

Member Avatar for tupacwe

i have also noticed that when I restarted the computer with the drive running it took the computer much longer to start than it did before this happened.

Member Avatar for tupacwe

anyone? I would really appreciate it

Member Avatar for MAD_DOG

I would say the drive is bad when your trying to copy certain files over and you getting that error. Just my two cents.

Member Avatar for rasputinj

Right Click My Computer, then go to Manage and then Disk Management, scroll down and see if you see the drive, sometimes the drive letter gets used by something else and XP/2000 does not know what to do, so the drive does not show up. If you see the drive there, just change the drive letter and you should be set. I have seen this a lot with USB drives, conflicting with Mapped drives.

I hope that is what your problem is.

Member Avatar for tupacwe

Yea I've tried to look for it like you said and it wont show up. I did use the maxblast program which can find it but cant find anything on the drive. Also, now it will not even turn on sometimes when I try to flip the switch on the case. I think it is definitely dying but is there anyway possible to be able to at least get some of the stuff on there to another hard drive?

Member Avatar for tupacwe

Also, I will never buy a maxtor hard drive again, constant problems. Oh, and I had a quick question as well. I have a dell dimension 8200, and I was wondering when I get a new drive if it would be able to handle something over 250. Because I thought a while back I was reading some computers cant handle anything bigger than a 250 drive.
Thanks

Member Avatar for rasputinj

Can you pull the HD out of the container and try to ghost it, or use a program to try to pull files off of it. Otherwise I believe you are screwed unless you want to drop around 1k to have a company pull the platters off and give you the data back.

Member Avatar for rasputinj

Can you pull the HD out of the container and try to ghost it, or use a program to try to pull files off of it, like some hard drive recovery software. Otherwise I believe you are screwed unless you want to drop around 1k to have a company pull the platters off and give you the data back.

Member Avatar for tupacwe

Can you pull the HD out of the container and try to ghost it, or use a program to try to pull files off of it, like some hard drive recovery software. Otherwise I believe you are screwed unless you want to drop around 1k to have a company pull the platters off and give you the data back.

What program would you suggest to try to pull the data off with?
Thanks

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