Hey ive had an external hard for a while now, and all of a sudden today my computer isn't registering that its hooked up. Why is this? What should i do?
i unplugged it form the wall and plugged it back in, not sure why that didnt work before. oh well, it works now:)
Your poor HD probably ran all the time before. A surge or power fluctuation sent the ext HD controller into a fugue state and it couldn't pour data out of a boot with instructions on the heel. :) When you unplugged the power you reset the controller and it became smart again. You might want to power off your ext HD whenever you're not using it. Much harder for lightning or power surges to kill it and your valuable data.
that's an abbreviation for Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS 10.whatever, Linux
If you can't get it working again, it's possible the controller on the external drive is damaged, you could get the hard drive removed and either installed internally or put into a new enclosure.
Check and see if other items still work properly on your USB bus. I have an issue with my own USB 2.0 where only mass storage devices won't work. They behave the same way as your does: a USB device is recognized, but not identified. Other items, like my scanner, work just fine on the 2.0 ports. The storage devices work fine on the USB 1.1 ports. I also have a firewire port, and that is what my external drive connects to.
