Hardware Acomdata External HDD Not Recognized or Found

[HaloEffect17]

Here's the scoop. I've got an old 2011 Acomdata External HDD that I haven't booted up in a few months that is not recognized by my computer. And no, I don't even get a "USB has malfunctioned" error message, nor can I see it in Device Manager or Disk Management. I can't even view it via the obscure cmd method.

As for the product itself... turns on, lights up. Does not make any weird sounds that indicate the drive is toast. I have run out of options at this point. I was thinking it needed more power, so I thought about connecting it with a spare dual USB cable to give it more juice.

Anyone have any ideas? Or am I screwed?

 

[HaloEffect17]

I also tried removing the housing and putting it in the fridge wrapped in paper towels in a sealed plastic bag. Didn't work.

 

[Originality]

The housing itself might be failing, or the drive itself might have gone. I would definitely not have recommended sticking it in a fridge, but moving on...

The first thing you should do is take the drive out of the housing and stick it in a computer. See if it's recognised by BIOS first, then see if Windows recognises it. If BIOS recognises it but Windows doesn't, you may need to wait for up to an hour for it to show up (based on recent experience) or it may be too far gone and won't show up at all (which makes things more complicated). If BIOS doesn't recognise it, them the PCB of the drive is gone and you're SOL.

Post back your results.

 

[HaloEffect17]

The housing itself might be failing, or the drive itself might have gone. I would definitely not have recommended sticking it in a fridge, but moving on...

The first thing you should do is take the drive out of the housing and stick it in a computer. See if it's recognised by BIOS first, then see if Windows recognises it. If BIOS recognises it but Windows doesn't, you may need to wait for up to an hour for it to show up (based on recent experience) or it may be too far gone and won't show up at all (which makes things more complicated). If BIOS doesn't recognise it, them the PCB of the drive is gone and you're SOL.

Post back your results.

I'll give that a shot when I have a chance. In the meantime, thanks for the suggestion.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

It sounds like the enclosure itself is dead, it should at least show something in Device Manager if it wasn't. Luckily HDD enclosures are pretty cheap so if that is the only issue then you can get a new one to stick the HDD in for $10-15 or even less.

I have heard of people temporarily fixing broken HDDs by putting them in the freezer, I assume this is where you got the idea to stick it in the fridge from. However that's only a temporary solution at best and should only be attempted if the HDD is indeed broken and you have exhausted all other recovery options and really need the data that is on the HDD, and even then, it should be done with the HDD in an airtight container so that no moisture can get in.

 

[RandomUser]

If the PCB is bad, could he/she find a donor PCB of the same drive, and use the donor in the drive to recover the data off of it, assuming the heads and platters is still intact? The mapping of the hard drive is usually stored on the platter and sometime the firmware is also stored on the platter as well.
It really does sounds like the hard drive is toast at this point.

 

[HaloEffect17]

Post back your results.

Well, I finally got around to trying to stick the drive into a computer, and it worked! It's a SATA drive so I was able to hook it to one of the SATA connectors on one of my desktops, found it right away, and I copied everything I needed. Thanks for everyone for the kind suggestions, I suppose the PCB was bad, but obviously, the HDD was still intact.