I have a Maxtor external USB hard drive that is not being recognized
as being valid. I tried it on multiple PCs, and it shows up in
Windows Explorer as a drive letter, but when I click on it, it asks me
if I want to format the drive.
I don't have any experience trying to get data off a defective hard
drive, so any pointers appreciated. At least it's recognized as a USB
drive so maybe a utility can scan it in some way and fix it enough so
that I can retrieve the data that's on it.
download and run maxtor diagnostics.
it wouldnt surprise me if you have a bad drive.
maxtor is notorious for that.
journey wrote:
> I have a Maxtor external USB hard drive that is not being recognized
> as being valid. I tried it on multiple PCs, and it shows up in
> Windows Explorer as a drive letter, but when I click on it, it asks me
> if I want to format the drive.
>
> I don't have any experience trying to get data off a defective hard
> drive, so any pointers appreciated. At least it's recognized as a USB
> drive so maybe a utility can scan it in some way and fix it enough so
> that I can retrieve the data that's on it.
"Jay B" <jayB@audiman.net> wrote in message
news:4846e42b$0$25709$607ed4bc@cv.net...
> download and run maxtor diagnostics.
> it wouldnt surprise me if you have a bad drive.
> maxtor is notorious for that.
He knows it's bad already. Surprise(:>)
There is a chance that the circuitry in the HD enclosure has a problem. Have
you tried the HD in another enclosure or by connecting it directly into your
system??
>
>
> journey wrote:
>> I have a Maxtor external USB hard drive that is not being recognized
>> as being valid. I tried it on multiple PCs, and it shows up in
>> Windows Explorer as a drive letter, but when I click on it, it asks me
>> if I want to format the drive.
>>
>> I don't have any experience trying to get data off a defective hard
>> drive, so any pointers appreciated. At least it's recognized as a USB
>> drive so maybe a utility can scan it in some way and fix it enough so
>> that I can retrieve the data that's on it.
maxtor has a bad reputation in this group, but i actually find western
digital desktop drives to have a far greater failure rate than any other
manufacturer. i must have replaced every western digital 80gb drive that
dell ever sent me in new systems over the last three years. i am talking
scores of drives. pitiful. but these local polls are notoriously
inaccurate (both mine regarding western digital and other personal comments
about maxtor). i don't know of any published failure rates for drive
manufacturers but would be interested if anyone knew of any.
as for the problem at hand... i wonder if the op has a maxtor onetouch 4
that is 500gb. if so there is a lot of discussion about the problem in the
seagate forums (seagate is now the owner of maxtor). they have suggestions
as simple as disconnecting the usb cable, power off the pc and drive, power
on the pc and drive, and then reconnect the cable... but it can be much
more serious. here is one of the many discussion about this drive at the
seagate forums: http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/...&thread.id=606
"William R. Walsh" <wm_walsh@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:157090b8-4063-4925-840b-09ca5d738bfa@b1g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
> Hi!
>
>> I have a Maxtor external USB hard drive that is not being recognized
>> as being valid.
>
> Maxtor drives have a reputation. (I won't say they are all bad,
> because I have two that have just run and run.)
>
> In any case, I second the recommendation to take the drive out of the
> USB enclosure and hook it up directly to a computer.
>
> William
Thanks to all who replied. I should have said it's a One Touch II
(250GB). As usual, this group has pointed me in the right direction.
If I am able to salvage the data, I'll post what I ended up doing. I
am going to try to find a Maxtor utility first, as suggested, and do
some more Googling.
Fortunately, the drive was "expendable" as far as the data I have on
it, otherwise I would have had a backup. I think it might have had
country music on it <jk>. Actually, it had a lot of music that I
offloaded from iTunes that I would not likely want to listen to, old
versions of installs, etc.
On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:18:28 -0500, journey <journey@merr.com> wrote:
>Thanks to all who replied. I should have said it's a One Touch II
>(250GB). As usual, this group has pointed me in the right direction.
>If I am able to salvage the data, I'll post what I ended up doing. I
>am going to try to find a Maxtor utility first, as suggested, and do
>some more Googling.
>
>Fortunately, the drive was "expendable" as far as the data I have on
>it, otherwise I would have had a backup. I think it might have had
>country music on it <jk>. Actually, it had a lot of music that I
>offloaded from iTunes that I would not likely want to listen to, old
>versions of installs, etc.
Journey, I hope I'm wrong but I think the drive is toast so you may
have trouble salvaging data from it. That said, for a last resort,
try what some people recommend... freeze the drive and then try it.
I have no idea if this works but please keep us posted what works (if
any) for you. Thanks.
ps-- I hope I'm wrong and you are able to salvage from it.
On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:50:45 -0500, RnR <rnrtexas@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:18:28 -0500, journey <journey@merr.com> wrote:
>
>>Thanks to all who replied. I should have said it's a One Touch II
>>(250GB). As usual, this group has pointed me in the right direction.
>>If I am able to salvage the data, I'll post what I ended up doing. I
>>am going to try to find a Maxtor utility first, as suggested, and do
>>some more Googling.
>>
>>Fortunately, the drive was "expendable" as far as the data I have on
>>it, otherwise I would have had a backup. I think it might have had
>>country music on it <jk>. Actually, it had a lot of music that I
>>offloaded from iTunes that I would not likely want to listen to, old
>>versions of installs, etc.
>
>
>Journey, I hope I'm wrong but I think the drive is toast so you may
>have trouble salvaging data from it. That said, for a last resort,
>try what some people recommend... freeze the drive and then try it.
>I have no idea if this works but please keep us posted what works (if
>any) for you. Thanks.
>
>ps-- I hope I'm wrong and you are able to salvage from it.
Thanks, I remember hearing about freezing drives. I am going to try a
utility from Maxtor if I can find one from its site (Maxtor's owned by
Seagate now I think so maybe it is over there), there is a program
called GetDataBackNTFS that I will try too. If nothing else works,
I'll try freezing the drive. If that doesn't work, I'll apply a light
coat of olive oil to each side, lightly salt and use fresh ground
pepper, sear each side using a cast iron frying pan, and finish it off
in the broiler until it's just the right shade of pink.
On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:59:00 -0500, journey <journey@merr.com> wrote:
>On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:50:45 -0500, RnR <rnrtexas@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:18:28 -0500, journey <journey@merr.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Thanks to all who replied. I should have said it's a One Touch II
>>>(250GB). As usual, this group has pointed me in the right direction.
>>>If I am able to salvage the data, I'll post what I ended up doing. I
>>>am going to try to find a Maxtor utility first, as suggested, and do
>>>some more Googling.
>>>
>>>Fortunately, the drive was "expendable" as far as the data I have on
>>>it, otherwise I would have had a backup. I think it might have had
>>>country music on it <jk>. Actually, it had a lot of music that I
>>>offloaded from iTunes that I would not likely want to listen to, old
>>>versions of installs, etc.
>>
>>
>>Journey, I hope I'm wrong but I think the drive is toast so you may
>>have trouble salvaging data from it. That said, for a last resort,
>>try what some people recommend... freeze the drive and then try it.
>>I have no idea if this works but please keep us posted what works (if
>>any) for you. Thanks.
>>
>>ps-- I hope I'm wrong and you are able to salvage from it.
>
>Thanks, I remember hearing about freezing drives. I am going to try a
>utility from Maxtor if I can find one from its site (Maxtor's owned by
>Seagate now I think so maybe it is over there), there is a program
>called GetDataBackNTFS that I will try too. If nothing else works,
>I'll try freezing the drive. If that doesn't work, I'll apply a light
>coat of olive oil to each side, lightly salt and use fresh ground
>pepper, sear each side using a cast iron frying pan, and finish it off
>in the broiler until it's just the right shade of pink.
I agree... might as well try the HD mfgr utilities first. Maybe just
put some bbq sauce on it and bbq it when the weather gets nice <g>.
> maxtor has a bad reputation in this group, but i actually find western
> digital desktop drives to have a far greater failure rate than any other
> manufacturer.
I've had very little trouble with Western Digital drives over the years. The
two oldest drives I had from them were 3.1 and 8GB Caviar units. The 3.1GB
unit ran nonstop (other than power failures) in a server from 1997 until
2004, and the 8GB wasn't far behind it in the same machine. I don't know how
long they would have run--a basement flood got them both. Stiction was
starting to be a problem with these drives if they were allowed to cool
down.
That said, I'm convinced that *every* drive manufacturer has had at least
one series of drive that wasn't very good...drives like the 75GXP
"Deathstar" from IBM/HGST...
Out of about 20 80GB Western Digital drives I put in systems I built in late
2004, only one has failed with a bad logic board. Another was reporting slow
spinup times through the SMART data, so I put it in a system that I wouldn't
miss too much if it were to go down.
SMART data is interesting to watch, but so far I haven't found it to be
useful in most cases. Only a few drives have given any kind of SMART warning
before they died. Many system BIOSes ignore SMART data by default (the
Compaq Deskpro EN PIII series BIOS being a very vocal exception...) and of
those that do, not all of them monitor each parameter that a drive supports.
I saw at least one drive that had violated most of its SMART tolerances (the
point at which the drive should be "failing") and the system BIOS waited
until it was almost too late to sound the warning.
I've also had good results with Seagate and IBM drives, although the IBM
ones have a habit of dying suddenly instead of slowly fading away. The one
ExcelStor drive I have works perfectly and really is much quieter than the
competition. It looks like an IBM design, and I did recently see an IBM/HGST
branded drive in a Compaq that is the same as my ExcelStor 80GB unit. I
don't see many Samsung drives, but those appear to be reliable as well.
Maxtor is the only drive brand I've found that really sticks out in terms of
failure for desktop drives, although I have a stack of Fujitsu desktop
drives whose logic boards are sensitive to temperature. Toshiba takes the
crown for laptop drive failures, including several in my stack of dead
drives that work when held in certain positions only.
> i don't know of any published failure rates for drive
> manufacturers but would be interested if anyone knew of any.
Google did a study on hard drive failures, and it's an interesting read. I
don't remember if there was anything in it that broke the results down by
drive brand.
The moral of the story is no matter what drive you have, expect it to fail
and backup accordingly. Furthermore, test your backups to make sure you can
in fact restore from them!
Bad external drive, salvaging data? 
Linear Mode
