hello out there, i recently bought an external hard drive to store my music on. it is a western digital 500gb model number WD5000h1U-00

at first i had no issues with it, but now i can't get it to show up on either of my computers. i am backing up all the music from my vaio (running winXP SP2) and trying to use the HD when i DJ out on my compaq laptop (running winVista).

the only issues i had, other than it not showing up occasionally, was i could not "safely remove" the HD from my laptop the last time i used it. windows kept telling me that it was being used by a program (i wasn't running any programs). eventually, i just closed my laptop, let the HD turn off, and disconnected it.

additionally, i should mention that the HD has a blue light which indicates when it is turned on. it is only turned on when connected to a computer. this light always turns on, so it seems the HD recognizes the computer, but the computer does not recognize the HD.

any help would be greatly appreciated. i would rather not have to format the HD, as i have ripped some music to it, and have not synced it with my vaio recently. but, i have all the cds, so i could always rip them again, so its not the end of the world or anything. thanks!!!!!

Hi alecsputnik,

Sorry about the delay in replying to you.
We have a staff of techs who have a wide variety of skills and will be able to help you with your problem, this is not my area of expertise, one of the folks who can help you should be along shortly.
Thank you
Cart

i hope so! thanks for getting back to me. i have no idea what to do!

I know this thread is old but the same thing has just happened to me. Identical issues actually.

Drive was working fine then just stopped. The blue light is on.. the sounds within sound like it is working but the drive is not showing up on either my husbands laptop nor my desktop. Tried swapping out the usb cords still nothing. Is there any help for this drive or do I need to try and take it in to a professional to have the info emergency saved so to put on a new HD... Please let me know as soon as possible the info on this drive is very time sensitive!

Psycha,

Please do not hijack old threads. That is one of the easiest ways to have your question overlooked. A new thread, perhaps pointing to one with a similar problem, is best.

However, with that said, Welcome! PCHF is full a helpful end-users and a great tech staff to assist you with your question.

Please see this thread with great instructions from Elpmek. It should resolve your issue. Please report back.

http://www.pchelpforum.com/hard-driv...ternal-hd.html

Its probaly the drive. Just because the lights are on and its spinning doesnt mean it will work. THats becasue there is a circuit booard that attachesd to the datta connetors of the drive to provide a usb interface. It could be that the cable is bad or the interface board thats in charge of ushing out data through the cord is messed up.

spinrite from GRC.com is great for repairing damaged drives. If the 'safely remove' option doesn't work, I shut down my machine before removing external drives.