Camera Labs

Hey all,
I have this USB externel hard drive 2.5" of 30GB.. I have been using it to backup all my images, instead of placing them in my Laptop.. I am not a very techincal person when it comes to Computers, but when ever i connect this hard drive to my Laptop it makes wierd noises and the Computer can not detect it at all.. I am using Windows Vista and it used to work absolutely fine.. It started to happen in the last two weeks..

If.. Your reply is that my Hard drive is Dead! Is there any possible way that i can recover the data from that hard drive?? I already have bought another 2.5" 60GB from Ebay.

Thanks in Advance

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Camera's: Canon 450D - Canon 40D
Lenses: Canon 70-200mm F/4 L, Sigma 10-20mm, Tokina 28-70, Sigma 300mm 2.8, Canon 50mm 1.4, EFS 60mm 2.8 macro
Flashes: 430EXII, 580EX and ST-E2

If you can hear the disk running, then chances are it isn't quite dead yet. Do the following;

-try connecting it to another computer
-get someone to take the hard disk out of the enclosure if you can't do it yourself, and put the hard disk by itself into a computer

if it works in another computer, copy the files onto a new disk. If not, then search google for disk recovery etc.

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I've upped my Iso, now up yours.
Nikon D700, Nikon D80, Micro Nikkor 105 f2.8 AI-S,Nikon 85mm 1.8D, Nikon 50mm 1.8D, Nikon 35mm F2D, Nikon 16-35 f4 VR, Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 AF-S, Nikon 70-200VRII, Nikon 70-300mm VR, 300mm f2.8 AI IF ED, SB-800, SB-900. Noiseware pro,NIK Dfine, Nik Colour Effex, Nik Sharpener Pro

If it's making funny noises then theres a good chance that there is something wrong with the hard disk itself and not your enclosure, it is probably going to soon die completely.

Make sure the first thing you do if/when you get it detected is to transfer all your images as a professional backup from a dead hard disk is extremely expensive.

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Graham
Flickr

Weird sounds could be OK.
It's hard to understand how exactly it sounds in your case. Is it something similar to any of these sounds: http://datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php ?
If yes then it's a mechanical problem and you will need a help by a professional.
If it sounds OK - try to remove it from enclosure and connect directly to your computer via adapter.

You could just have bad clusters on your hard drive. download and burn a copy of "spinwrite" to a CD then boot from it and let it do its magic on the drive. it may be able to repair it.

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Tobywuk personal website || My Flickr
Gear: Sony a700! || CZ 16-80mm! || Sony 75-300 || bag: Crumpler PB xxxl / Lowepro slingshot 200

i have an external drive and sometimes it makes noises (its crappy) and half the time my mac mini won't recognize it, sometimes it just has its days. i to would try it on a different pc.

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Canon 40D + 70-200mm f/2.8L IS + 50mm f/1.8
Manfrotto 055CX3 + 496RC2
www.thomaslowe.com

Based off of what you said, it is more than likely a physical problem that will not be resolved by switching from computer to computer. I would take a look at ellis's link which could be helpful in diagnosing the problem. A classic sound is spinning up, clicking and trying to spin up, and clicking again, and so on. Or the constant clicking is also bad.

Although, there is one more possibility that comes to mind. Mind showing us the hard drive? If it gets power from USB strictly, and you have another device sapping power from the USB ports you can have issues. A lot of small hard drives operate at about 5V @ 500 to 1000ma. USB provides 5V@500ma, which is sufficient for the former, unless a power hungry device is also attached. So, it's possible for the hard drive to have a hard time spinning up, and instead constantly clicking due to insufficient power.

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Sony A300 || 18-70 Kit Lens || Minolta 70-210 f4 Beercan || Minolta 50mm f1.7 || METZ 48-AF1 Flashgun || flickr

You probably dropped it sometime or someone else knocked it over and didn't tell you about it. The writer scratched the disk and repairing it will probably cost the same amount or more as buying a new hard drive. Give a better descriptionon this "noise".

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Samsung GX-10, , SA 18-55mm
Canon 5D Mark II, 40D, EF 17-40mm f/4 L, EF 24-105mm L IS, EF 50mm f/1.4

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