External HDD troubleshooting

Question

My external HDD is not working. It doesn't detect in Linux, I even did smartctl which didn't show up the manufacturer's name of the HDD . I think something has gone wrong. It's 4 years old. Is there any way I can troubleshoot it before I discard it?

Answer 1

First of all check harddisk platters are spinning or not.. If not then harddisk is not working.

if hard disk have power then try following stuff..

1. Try another USB port. Or do you have another OS ?
2. If your OS won't mount your USB drive, you can mount it yourself. Plug in the USB pen. In terminal type: # fdisk -l (so that you will see the device such as: /dev/sda1) Mount it: # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/temp (you have to make sure /mnt/temp exists

follow this link for more stuff.

steps that i follow.. first check hdd have power or not. if it have power and working then ttach to pc and use some disk checking utility.

another option open disk case and attach this HDD with SATA/other cable to PC and try to run direct .. may be the HDD case is faulty...

hope these things help you..

Answer 2

Can you hear it spin up when you plug it in? Does it make any other noises, like clicking or ticking?

There's a chance that the electronics have gone bad but the disk is OK, especially if it's not spinning up. You could try taking the enclosure apart and connecting the disk through a different USB adaptor if you have one.

Don't spend too long on trying to recover flaky disks, you're best off just replacing them. Once they start to give a problem they don't last much longer.