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One of my external 2.5" 4TB hdd seems to have failed - nothing crucial, but definitely good to get it back ! It's been well looked after, kept in a padded bag, has never left my office, and is used once or twice per month for 3 years.
Anyone had any luck with this kind of thing? Any way to tell if it's the actual drive, or the controller, or ... ?
I've tried 2 different leads, and the various USB laptop ports = same.
So is it worth trying to remove the drive and sticking it in a generic external caddy, or is it likely a lost cause ?
Symptoms seem consistent, which I guess is a bad sign?
- drive LED flashes constantly (no noises)
- I see a Local Disc (D): in file explorer, but it's completely unresponsive
- unable to 'safely eject', so need to shutdown laptop to remove.
- Disk Management app just hangs without loading any drive data ... I guess this is the killer ?
- After several minutes, I see this >
UPDATE
And when I connect the disc whilst the Disk Management app is active, it is seen/recognised, but again unresponsive.
You could try this [actually free] disk software:
https://www.paragon-software.com/free/pm-express/#
Has helped me get out a couple of problems.
With external drives it's not always going to work, I removed the drive from an external Seagate with the click of death and it was unsortable.
Thanks @boink - will give that a go. The name is familiar - I think I've used it in the past, along with Norton Disc Doctor!
Can you feel any signs of the disk spinning?
Sometimes, if a drive is not used for some time, the head 'sticks' to the platter in the parking zone.
As a last resort, if you can feel no evidence of spinning, a gentle tap against the desk, can get it going.
I've done this several times (over the course of decades), and it always impresses the hell out of the poor shmuck whose machine seems dead in the water. This was with traditional towers and you just lifted the case about half a centimetre and let it drop back on the desk.
Good tip, thanks. ? But yes - the disc seems to be spinning as normal - slight noise & vibration, and LED flashing active. Just that it never stops ♻️
The Paragon app (above) seems very slick these days, but it just hangs too (if Windows os is not seeing the drive, then I guess any app under Windows would also fail).
Next, I will try to remove the drive from its case without damaging it, and insert into another caddy (nipped down the shops yesterday - out of caddies!) Although this being a 4TB drive I'm guessing it's a bit deeper than smaller drives (?) so I hope I can still connect it at least (even if I can't seal the case).
