External hard drive error!!!!!!

[paynetrainvy]

Ok I have a huge problem! I connect my external hard drive (1TB) to my computer running XP it makes the noise that its connected an appears in "My Computer" but when I click on it an errors pops up "please insert disc into drive"

Can anyone help me??!?? I have tried going through the management option an changing the drives name but it doesn't appear in "disc management" it's really starting to piss me off because I put all my stuff on it like music an videos on it

Any help would be awesome

[Astranomical]

Have you tried connecting it to another machine? Also, if the drive has more than one interface (just about any external drive will have USB as standard, but some will also have eSATA and/or FireWire), can you try that?

If you don't have any joy getting it to work on another computer, then I'd say that something is seriously wrong with it. What brand is the drive? Was it a prebuilt one that you bought at a store, or did you buy a bare HDD and case and build it yourself? If you can remove the HDD from the case without voiding any warranty it may have, try either putting it in another case, or connecting it to the internal SATA bus on your PC. If that works, then the USB -> SATA bridge in the case is most likely buggered, which means you'll have to get a new case. If you still have no joy, and it doesn't appear under Disk Management, that means that there is something very wrong with the drive, and if you have stuff on there that you want to see again, you will have to take the drive to a professional data recovery company that can disassemble the drive in a Class 100 clean room and retrieve your data. Just be aware that this will be very expensive - which is why keeping regular backups (that are tested regularly) is an extremely good idea.

[paynetrainvy]

Ok thanks for that I'll give another machine a go if it doesn't work I'll see someone about looking into it for me.

Oh it's a store bought one - iomega I think

[Astranomical]

Before you open it check all around the drive for a warranty seal...if it does have one, at that point you'll have to decide which is more important - your warranty or your data :-/ (for what its worth, Iomega usually put a sticker over one of the screws on the back, and will not honour the warranty if its removed)

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Go into your system hardware and see if the dreaded yellow triangle with the exclamation mark is next to your HDD. If it is, uninstall it and then plug it in again and go through the install new hardware again. Even if it isnt there and it appears to be working, uninstall it anyway. Or you could just plug it into a different USB port and install it again.

[paynetrainvy]

Ok thanks - it was a $100 harddrive , my data is more important

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

How did you get the data on there in the first place?

[NV-MY-VT]

Seems like the controller is busted. If it's out of warranty, open the bastard up, take the actual disc out of it, and plug the disc directly into the inside of your computer if you can.

If that doesn't work, you're basically screwed. Try a professional drive recovery company.