External Hard Drive Problem?

[Unreal Tuner]

Hopefully I have this in the right forum...

The other day I was burning a data cd using files from my external hard drive. Its a Western Digital 160gb. I left my computer unattended for a little while and did not realize that my computer had froze. Call this very bad timing, then the power went off. The power came back on after 10 min. but I decided not to try again until the next day. I turned on the hard drive but it doesnt make the connected sound but it does turn on. When I turn it off...it makes the disconnect sound. Can Anyone help me out or did I lose all my data??

Also, I plugged the hard drive into my laptop and it was detected but said it did not work properly...

Thanks for any help

 

[Unreal Tuner]

Could it be I need a driver? I'm running windows xp pro and this harddrive is plug and play.

anybody?

 

[Sui]

Could it be I need a driver?
anybody?

No, it worked before it should work now.
Nope

I'm geussing this is a USB External HD? Does it have any other ports you can try, like firewire perhaps? My best guess at this point would be the USB interface died on the External HD. Now you said External HD and not 'HD in an external enclosure'. I've never peaked inside one of those External HD's to know whats inside, IF its just a regular IDE you should be able to install it into an external enclosure and get your files back. This would void the warrenty but the data is usually worth more then the drive so.... its your call.

 

[Unreal Tuner]

It doesnt seem to have firewire...but I will double check...

Thanks for your help!

 

[Unreal Tuner]

Heres something interesting...I unplugged everything then reconnected it...

now the hard drive comes up just fine...what could have happened??