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!

Duplicate post deleted by me!

Sorry to be such a PITA.... But how do I determine if it's PATA or SATA?

It's most likely PATA, but I wouldn't swear to it. Crack the case first to find out. If it's got a big wide ribbon connector to the drive, it's PATA. If it's a svelte, thin cable, it's SATA.

I love it when Ken translates geekspeak to English. Seriously. Thanks.

Mark, you stay hydrated and keep us updated, okay?

A lot of external drives are just an internal with a fancy case around them. If power seems to be the issue, I'd have no hesitation in opening it up to see what's inside.

Alternatively, you can buy a 20 dollar hard drive recovery cable that has both a SATA and an old IDE drive connector connected to a USB input to another computer. They come with thier own power supply to power the drive.

I can't remember what they are properly called to google them but I used a buddies to retrieve data off a drive that wouldn't boot my PC anymore. Worked quiet well. They can be found on ebay under 20 bucks because many people buy them to use once and then don't have another immediate need for them.

Also, if you think you have power but the drive is just not spinning. There are people who swear by putting your hard drive in a ziplock bag and into the freezer for a few hours. I think it may be an urban myth but like all urban legends, I know someone who did it and it worked.

Murph:

Thanks for the reply!

As things stand at the moment, I haven't cracked open the case as of yet, but I'm planning on doing so and likely will install the drive as an "internal" to offload it. I'm not sure if I'll keep it as an internal, or maybe buy a Drobo and install it as well as some of the other drives that are sitting around unused.

It's been years since I installed a HD...are there pin settings/dip switches to be concerned with, or would any of those already be set correctly anyway?

SATA drives usually have no pins or dip switches. Even if it's an older ATA drive where you had to set it to "Slave" vs. "Master" , it would already have been set to "slave" mode because it was intended to be used as a supplementary drive anyways. Any other settings should not be changed either.

Once you open it up, you will almost assuredly find an a plain old, internal hard drive hooked to nothing more than a power supply an on/off button and maybe some very minor circuitry. The drive itself should have two cables. The power supply cable should be easy enough to identify, leaving the data cable.

If it's the older ATA style drive, it will be a large flat ribbon cable. If that is the case, there is going to be pins or dip switches but as mentioned above, you shouldn't need to change anything. If you find a small plastic pin connector rattling freely around in there, you also found your problem.

If it's a much smaller ended, round cable it is PATA and there is nothing to change as they are pretty much plug and play.

The only challenge you will have is maybe matching the cable to your PC. Power should be easy as your PC probably has extra power cables of different size ends. However, most newer PCs are SATA and don't have anywhere to hook up the older style drives and vice versa if older.

For your data cable to the PC, the older ATA's usually have an extra connector wired in parallel to the existing cable.

The SATA drives usually plug into internal USB ports inside the PC itself. Just trace out the existing hard drives cable to find the extra port. You may need to buy another cable though as the port is probably sitting empty. For either technology, the one in the external drive will likely be too short to be useful and may not be removable.


Hope this helps. Feel free to ask more questions once you get deeper into it. I expect to see some nice photos of the whole project.

Good post, Murph--but I have a couple of corrections.

If the drive is PATA (big wide cable), it's more likely to be set to Cable Select or Master, since on the little teeny internal bus of hte USB converter board, it's a Master, not a slave. The drive should have a little diagram telling you what jumper need to go where for which operation.

4th paragraph, you mean SATA.

6th paragraph, they hook up to SATA ports, not USB. Different protocol.

Sorry for the nitpicking, but hey, I'm a pedant.

No apologies needed. You are absolutely correct. I wrote it much to quickly and I did mix up my acronyms a few times. Thanks for the help. I didn't remember typing USB but it was on my mind from the external cable recover device I mentioned earlier. I knew they were different which is why I mentioned tracing them down to find them. Oh well.

I'll admit that the slave master thing was a surprise though. The one I opened up was a Maxtor set to slave so I assumed they all would be similar as it made sense being a secondary drive. However, I suppose that would be dependent on the circuitry.

If that's the case, you will indeed need to double check the jumpers/switches. If it's set to master, you will need to set to slave. Most are labeled right on the drive but you might have to find some online documentation on the Master vs. different slave settings.

Good catch!
Glad you caught my errors before he got confused.

...is not a cute kid.

It's Pain-In-The-A** me with Pata/Sata situation!

OK....here's my drive, newly birthed from it's case:


So, that's got a wide-ribbon connector, making it PATA, right?

Well, my Dell looks like it's set up for SATA only:


(Does the "S" in SATA mean Serial?)

So, I assume I'm back to Newegg's site to find a PATA external case?

I assume that the drive is 3.5"? Doesn't say anywhere....

Will a case like this be pretty good?

Thank you guys for your help on this!

You got it. That case would probably do just fine.

Do you have to take gorgeous pictures of everything?

Yes.

Yes I do.



Seriously...thanks to both of you for your help with this. I'm sure knowledgeable guys like you get hit up as tech support for your friends and family all the time...

I'm sweating this more than I let on because I'm embarrassed that I hadn't backed it up as well as I should. Honestly, I've never had a drive fail. Hopefully, I haven't here either and it's only the power supply!

I'm ordering that case right now!

Hope it works for you!

I know the embarrassment. At least you only have yourself to blame, and yourself can only blame you. Try losing 5 months of your wife's stuff because you didn't back up.

Speaking of gorgeous photos, did you ever wish you could adjust your depth of field and focal plane after the shot?

Adobe is working on it, but it requires a special lens.

You are correct and correct. It's an older IDE drive and your PC is SATA. The cable in the forefront of your PC picture marked with P3 and P5 connectors is the power cable. (Easily identified by licking the pins inside.) The little tiny blue, flat cable is actually the data cable. You won't be able to read the external drive directly from your PC.

I think my earlier trouble with mixing up the acronyms comes from the fact that I would call this type of drive (your external one) and IDE drive. I tried to conform and sound cooler by saying PATA but it gave me acronym blur...heh heh.

For a quick fix option, the SATA/IDE converter to USB should get the data off there but it would be ugly to leave connected permanently. Found one here just so you can see a picture.

SATA/IDE to USB
or much cheaper if you are brave enough for Ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/USB-2-0-to-SATA-IDE-C...1QQcmdZViewItem

Yet another option would be to buy a cheap IDE controller and cable and put it in a free expansion slot if there is room. If you can find a used one, the price should be close to free. Have to make sure your chipset supports it though, I think. Was never a problem with older MBs but maybe you have to be careful with newer ones. Not sure really.

In any case, your idea for a new external IDE hard drive case, is a good one because it creates a permanent use for the drive if it is still intact.

Ack, there was like 5 replies in the time it took me to type that.

If I type fast, I screw up, type slow, and I'm outdated before I even post.

LOL!!

Can we be certain that there is not already an IDE controller on Mark's motherboard? Maybe all he needs is a cable?

Doubt it but the long plug would be easy to spot.

Yeah, the PATA thing kinda threw me, too. I'd never really heard that term before; always IDE vs SATA.

Just an update:

The new external drive enclosure arrived yesterday and this morning I installed the drive successfully both in the enclosure (!) and on the system. All is well!

Now, I just have to be sure I force myself to take a week and index everything on there and offload it to DVD!

Thank you guys for your help....it was VERY much appreciated!!!

Congratulations, this entitles you to a promotion to computer geek status. All that is left for you to do is to add a water cooling kit to that sucker with blue LED lighting and you will be instantly promoted to the new title..

Mark's new promotion to "computer geek" should be easy. He was already halfway there. . .

Cool, glad it worked!

This thread's title make me laugh. The French equivalent to "yadi yada yada" (or its variations) is "patati patata".

Murph, you forgot to mention Mark would still need to add the windowed side covers for the LED's to shine through.

Hey, I resemble that remark.

ididn'tbuythecaseforthewindow...

Mmmmmmmm....Internal Blue Glow...... Mmmmmmmmmmm!

I have to admit that my recent build was to have a windowed case and the fans all had blue LEDs, even the processor cooler. That one my son liked so much I gave it to him, he was due for a new one any way. My personal new build is windowless, but it does have a mesh around the perimiter walls for cooling and the blue LED's from the processor fan just add a soft glow to it, just barely visible.