When i connect my 320gb external drive, it beeps a few times and doesn't show up in My Computer. I tried changing the usb cord, same result. I tried connecting the drive to another laptop, still doesnt show up.

HALPPPPPPP....i need the data in this drive

10/9/2009 8:50:35 AM

all of my 2.5" externals that beep when plug in do it because they're not getting enough power from the USB port

they're usually drives i put together myself, though, and i don't really think that happens with the retail/name-brand drives

pop it out of the enclosure and hook it up via a converter cable or stick it in a desktop, see if it's shot

10/9/2009 8:58:29 AM

Quote :

"all of my 2.5" externals that beep when plug in do it because they're not getting enough power from the USB port"

did it come with a usb cable that had 2 ends on it?

10/9/2009 9:07:33 AM

mine looks like this

Quote :

"pop it out of the enclosure and hook it up via a converter cable or stick it in a desktop, see if it's shot"

where can i find a converter cable?

10/9/2009 10:18:02 AM

Quote :

"did it come with a usb cable that had 2 ends on it?"

you mean something like this?



some have and some haven't...my experience is that the beeping due to power issues tends to be related to the quality of the cable itself and not whether the unit actually requires more than what a single USB port puts out

Quote :

"where can i find a converter cable?"

you can find devices like that listed below pretty much anywhere that sells computer parts (intrex, tigerdirect/compusa/circuit city), though you'll get it cheaper online

10/9/2009 10:27:23 AM

when i remove the case, inside looks something like this. Will the converter cable work with this?



also, i took a working wd passport and tried exchanging that small circuit with usb pin to make sure usb power is not the problem. still the same...it beeps 3-4 times, shows as usb device connected to computer but the drive doesnt show up in the my computer list.

10/9/2009 10:39:43 AM

yepper, that's just a standard SATA interface...unlike IDE, 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives share the same interface

if you have a relatively new desktop, you can probably open it up and connect your drive as a secondary and see what it looks like in windows when you boot up

alternatively, you can head up to the tiger direct on crapital (i think it's still a TD...they might have renamed it to circuit city or compusa, but it's the same store) and pick up something like this:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1699339&CatId=3770

they're out of stock of that one, but if you go to their website and search "usb sata" a bunch should come up...then use their inventory kiosk to see if it's in stock: http://www.tigerdirect.com/kiosk.asp

10/9/2009 10:45:30 AM

thanks quag, i dont stay in rawlee anymore but i am gonna check in radioshack near my place tonight and try if it works!

10/9/2009 10:52:31 AM

2 different external hard drive issues....

1-- i have a wd passport 250gb brand new. i bought it to backup my mac before i put a new hd in and upgraded to snow leopard. initially it connected fine to my laptop and i was able to back everything up. later i tried to reconnect it and while its receiving power, my computer won't recognize it. i try again a day or two later and it works. i try again another day, it doesn't so i plug it into my netbook and it wouldn't show up. try again another day and it does. try it on the mac, and it works. i can't deal with this intermittent working bullshit. i'm using the power cord that came with my 100gb seagate with the wd passport because it has the 2 usb things and provides more power (or so i read on the internets). any ideas? i'd like to format it for mac only but not sure if that will fix my problem. i was going to use it as my time machine back up, but not with this on again off again bullshit

2-- my 100gb seagate has been a champion for the last 2-3 years. never fails me and always opens. with over 10,000 pictures, i am nearing capacity. i moved a bunch of movies and tv shows i had on there to my laptop to free up room for more pictures. i thought this would make a huge difference but it still says there is only 224.1mb available. i dont see how thats possible??? any ideas? i'd like to keep all my pictures on one external hard drive, aside from whatever i end up using for time machine. i've lost all my photos once in the past and had another mishap with several months worth of travel pics and really don't want to ever lose pics again so im a little crazy about backing them up

10/31/2009 4:31:56 PM

^you need to start backing them up to some kind of online service. picasa from google is free for like 5 or 10 gigs and cheap as hell after that for huge amounts of storage. that's what i use to make sure i never lose pics

10/31/2009 4:44:38 PM