External Help

[Vermachtnis]

My external stopped working. I was playing a game on it and then it froze. Now when I turn my external back on it hums for a little while and beeps and repeats or the red LED light just keeps blinking. What do I do?

[Mirage]

Is it still covered by warranty?

[Vermachtnis]

I don't know. I'm worried that you asked that though.

[Flying Mullet]

External hard drive?

[Mirage]

You should find out if it's covered asap. If it is, don't mess with it, cause then you could lose the warranty. If it isn't covered, your best bet is to open it up and try installing the actual HDD inside the box in a different HDD case, or putting it directly into your PC.

An external HDD (usually) consists of two main parts. One is the actual HDD where stuff is stored, the other is a circuit board with electronics that transform the HDD's interface into USB or Firewire, and controls the power given to the HDD. If it is this circuit board that is broken, your HDD and data is most likely possible to salvage by hooking it up directly to your PC. If it is the HDD itself, you're SOL.

[Vermachtnis]

I wasn't covered. And after some messing around I found the problem was with the four pronged thing, the one with the red wire, two black wires, and a yellow wire. I'm going to assume that's the SOL option cause even after I put it in the computer it didn't want to work. I could have put it in wrong though. So I figured I'd ask again.

[Mirage]

Are you talking about the power connector? In which way exactly is it broken? Maybe a picture would help.

[Vermachtnis]

I don't think it's the power connector. Sorry I can't explain it good and I don't have a camera. I did find a picture of what I'm talking about. It what those things go into is where the problem is. When I had that hooked up by itself it grinded and beeped. But when I unhooked it and had the long part in by itself it didn't grind or anything.

[Mirage]

Those are power connectors all right. If you plugged those in and got grinding and beeping, it's the HDD itself (unplugging them would make the drive turn off, thus ending the noise as well). You're most likely SOL, and even if it is salvageable, it is likely to be very expensive.

[Vermachtnis]

Ah, alright. Thanks for your help.