Windows 7 HDD on the fritz?

[Commander_Cool]

Hello, one of my external HDD:s has been acting funny lately; it will show up in Explorer, then disappear, then reappear after a short while with acompanying Autoplay dialog (as if it had just been plugged in).
And so it goes.
Is there some thorough diagnostics tool that will tell what's wrong or maybe lift the data from the disk then write it back or...I don't know.
Please help before it craps out altogether!
Thank you!

 

[Mitchell_A]

Ah, commander, we meet again
It could be on the fritz, or perhaps the connector is loose?
Try taking the cover off your PC and resetting all your hard drive cables, (make sur you plug em back in right, that was my mistake )
If not, you could check the Event logs to see if there's anything related to controller errors.
Cheers

 

[nehoma]

being an external HDD drive I assume it plugs into an USB socket so check the cable and sockets also if the External HDD has a switch turn it of and on and make sure the switch isnt sticking

 

[Commander_Cool]

Yes, you'll see that I'm not that easy to get rid of

"It could be on the fritz, or perhaps the connector is loose? "

I tend to the former possibility. I have switched cables, cabinets, tried it on my other machine - in short done all the obvious stuff. All I can hope for now is that the drive doesn't give in before I can scrape together the $$ to buy a new one. I will check out the logs, that'll be a first for me, and be back with a point for you if anything turns up there.

Aww...what the hey - I'll give you one for replying plus I have a nagging feeling I owe you past for assistance, Doc

Greetz

 

[Mitchell_A]

OK, so maybe I'm not really a doctor ..
Have you tried putting the hard drive in another harddrive bay (just switch the two around?) Windows won't boot anymore, but you could reboot several times, if it "stops working", the message will go from "Can't find boot files ('er something similar)" to "No drive found, drive error, etc etc.."
Anyway, post back the event logs.

 

[nehoma]

How do you get an external drive into an hard drive bay?

 

[Mitchell_A]

With my poor use of reading skills