My External Harddrive doesn't work anymore

[akasixcon]

so out of nowhere my external harddrive stopped working. IT can still power on and stuff it just can't be found on windows. Is there a way for windows to manually search for a USB harddrive? What steps can I take to make my harddrive work?

thanks

p.s. i did a restart and unplug + plug.

 

[carnageX]

See if its recognized under Disk Management. Start > right click My Computer > Manage... > Click on 'Disk Management' in the left-side window pane > wait for it to load, and on the bottom half look to see if your drive is recognized under there (look at the GB's to tell which one is which).

 

[akasixcon]

nope its not there. I also tried different USB slots too.

 

[Ste]

Open the external enclosure, while it is off and not connected to the PC, remove the Internal drive from the connectors, clean the connections using pressurized air or gas, or just blow it on it, resecure the internal drive to the connectors and try again.

If this does not work, try directly connecting the drive to the motherboard.

 

[Kharn]

I wouldn't blow on it a new an clean paint brush works best in my opinion.

 

[EricB]

usb hard drives are just fragile. this happens to most of them. firewire hdd's are more reliable

 

[akasixcon]

alright i'm trying it right now at the moment. in the meanwhile any other suggestions on how to fix this would be good.

The thing that might've caused this might've been suffocation or something. The harddrive was lying down on the carpet rug so maybe static?