External Harddrive problem.. help

[LightingBird]

I'm having a problem with a Western Digital external harddrive model #wd25001032. It uses its own power supply and is connected by USB.

I've had it for a few years and never had a problem with it. I haven't used it in a long time and I tried to hook it up to a vista prem vista pack 1 machine. The following things occur:

1. At first the computer doesnt detect it. The harddrive light comes on but no action on the computer.

2. I'll try and go into my computer and see if it shows the icon. It has a good hunk of data on it. The icon does not come up no matter what I do. Then out of nowhere my "my computer" folder will stop responding.

3. I've tried to increase and decrease the priority and nothing. Although as soon as I unplug the usb from the computer. The windows starts responding instantly.

4. I've did some basic computer checking like disabling the firewall, repairing the registry, and trying different usb ports out of desperation. I went into computer management and then storage but when the device is plugged up It goes to not responding.

Before I give up and take the data as a loss. Can anyone think of a way to resolve this?

 

[Hefemeister]

For starters you can always pull the drive and connect it directly to your motherbord to recover the data assuming the drive itself has not gone bad.

Has it worked on the computer before?
Any major changes to the computer since last time you used it?

 

[Thilly]

What system did you use it on before vista?

What is the drive formatted to?

Do you have the drive set to performance mode, and perhaps unplugged it without using the "safely remove hardware" utility?

Right click on My Computer, select Manage. Click Storage, then Disk Management. Do you see it there? If so, what does it's block say?