Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler My turn for a HD failure....HELP!

I have a 500 GB OneTouch III external drive (EDA-9MM2A6-326) that doesn't want to power on.

It's actually one of two identical drives I bought at the same time, and I tried switching the external power supplies on the assumption that it was the problem...no luck. Over the last couple of days, I noticed that it was sometimes not being recognized and that the large light on the front was dim (not unlit completely, though). If I switched it off, then back on, sometimes it would come on "dim" and not be recognized and other times it would come on normally. I didn't do anything immediately because I really assumed it was the wall-wart.

Today, it wouldn't come on at all so I tried switching wall-warts with the other drive and it didn't make any difference....still nothing.

My gut feeling is that the drive itself is OK...there was no clicking or anything to lead me to believe that it was the drive itself. I believe it's likely a power problem.

The drive has about 400 GB of data on it....most of which is backed up in sporadic ways. It was my intentions to backup/offload/delete each folder in a much more methodical way in another couple of weeks!

Any thoughts? Please? Pretty Please?

Is the thing still under warranty, or do you care? Maxtor has a crappy warranty where if you open the case (say, to remove the drive with your data on it to recover it...), it gets invalidated. You might try calling them, but I suspect they'd just send you a new one and ask you to send back the old one, with your data still on it and never to be seen again.

If it were me, I'd crack the case, get the drive out, and hook it up to your computer internally.

I don' care about the warranty. Just the data.

In your experience, is it likely a power problem or disc failure?

I haven't installed a drive in ten years. Computers and cars are the same for me: I used to be fearless and do all my own stuff, but now.....!

I'd be the last person you should ask about drive or power... but it's worth a shot to stick it in the machine. Just leave the case off and listen really closely--be ready to turn it off if you hear anything out of the ordinary.

Will there be dip switch issues, etc... or will it likely be "plug n' play?

Would an external case such as this be a viable option as well?

Mark,

I believe buying an external case and using the old 3.5" HD will work.

Also, it should be plug 'n' play, depending on the type of hard drive. If it's SATA, it's absolutely plug and play, if it's PATA, it's pretty close.

Thanks guys!

I think I might try the external case as I assume the drive will work, and I don't need it on all the time....

Hoo boy, don't buy that one from there. Go look at newegg.com. Also, make sure you know what kind of drive it is (PATA or SATA) before you buy an enclosure--most of them only support one kind!