External hard drive not working!! Aaarrrggghh!!!

[Tesla]

My external hard drive (which was working perfectly yesterday) is, for some frustrating and annoying reason, not working. It is a 120GB drive, externally powered, and it connects to my laptop with a firewire cable via one of those card adapter things. I don't know why this is not working, but I would really like to get it working as I have some very important files and programs on there. Help please?

[ShadowClaw]

Have you made sure that the Firewire card is working correctly?

[Tesla]

Yes. Or at least when I connect the Firewire card to the laptop, I hear the sound effect that plays when you connect something to the computer. But when I connect the cable (which is connected to the external hard drive on the other end, obviously) to the Firewire adapter card, nothing happens. When I pull it (the cable) out, I hear the sound effect as though I have just connected something to the computer. (In case you were wondering, yes, the external hard drive is connected to the wall, and is turned on.)

[ShadowClaw]

(In case you were wondering, yes, the external hard drive is connected to the wall, and is turned on.)

I assumed that much :)

Do you have another firewire device that you know works that you could plug into the card? If so this would let you know if the card or the harddrive is the problem. By the way how old is the card and the drive?

[Tesla]

the card and the drive are a few months old. I don't have another firewire device that I know works.

[Deadeye]

is there another laptop or computer that you can connect the external hard drive to? It could just be that although your laptop is registering something is connecting, it isn't transfering data

also, it could be that the plug is simply falling out of the socket on your laptop due to it being too heavy to be held up - i know it sounds stupid, but happened to me once, i spent all day being annoyed by it until i stuck a newspaper underneath to support it

[Tesla]

I should have mentioned this before - It doesn't work on a desktop computer either. (this makes me suspect that there must be a problem with the cable). Also, the firewire cable plugs in to the computer so firmly that I have trouble getting it out.

[ShadowClaw]

Does the drive have a USB interface? I know that some drives have both interfaces (Firewire and USB 2.0) built-in.

[Tesla]

No, the drive has two firewire ports on it.

[sovietmisaki]

I've read somewhere that replacing the casing for the external HDD may work, otherwise it really is messed up, though if it is working, make sure you get some cushion pads for that thing, because they are rather sensitive to being dropped <--speaking from experience

[NuclearDreams]

I own a PC shop and I use two external HDs for client backup. Both are Maxtor, one being 160GB and the other a 250GB HD. I've never had any problems with the drives, but I have had to replace a firewire cable. It would seem that firewire cables are sensitive to sharp bends in the cable itself. You might also want to check and see if the fan on the external HD casing is working properly, if the fan goes out the HD will eventually stop working. If the HD does not use a fan to cool itself but instead uses only a heatsink casing you might want to try what has already been mentioned and change to another casing with proper cooling. But that is the last thing you should do after checking cables and source connections.

[Tesla]

I just took apart the casing, and couldn't be bothered putting it back together. I took out the hard drive, and am buying a USB external hard drive case. This will hopefully work better than the other one, and if it does, it will be more convenient, as I will then not have to disconnect from the internet to do stuff on there. Anyway, thanks for your help everybody.