External USB Hard Drive Device not recongnized

  • Thread starter Thread starter lwest182
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lwest182

My Seagate external hard drive has been working fine for months then all of a
sudden this message appears:
"Device not recongnized"
"One of the USB Devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and
Windows does not recongnize it."
It now shows up as UNKNOWN DEVICE The recomendation is to reconnect it and
if that does not work replace it.
I took the Hard Drive and connected it to another computer running
Windows XP and Vista and it comes up as unknown device also.
I have so many important files back up onto it and it decides to do this lol.
Ive searched everywhere online and was hoping someone may know what I ca do
Thank You
 
lwest182 wrote:

> My Seagate external hard drive has been working fine for months then all of a
> sudden this message appears:
> "Device not recongnized"
> "One of the USB Devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and
> Windows does not recongnize it."
> It now shows up as UNKNOWN DEVICE The recomendation is to reconnect it and
> if that does not work replace it.
> I took the Hard Drive and connected it to another computer running
> Windows XP and Vista and it comes up as unknown device also.
> I have so many important files back up onto it and it decides to do this lol.
> Ive searched everywhere online and was hoping someone may know what I ca do
> Thank You

Hard drives do fail, whether or not they are inside the computer or in
an external drive enclosure or even whilst sitting on the self. As for
the information that is contained inside the drive, there are products
that can be downloaded and used for a recovery attempt. Alternately, a
professional data recovery outfit may be better for important stuff.

However, note that if the files on this hard drive are the only copies,
then they are no longer a backup. Having a backup implies that there are
always a minimum of 2 copies in existence.
 
Frequently it is only the interface electronics in the drive enclosure that
become defective. That was what happened with my Maxtor external drive. The
actual harddrive inside the case was still okay and I simply transferred it
into a new external case (ie. Acomdata) and the files were fine. Another
option if you have space in your PC is to install the drive internally. Just
remember to set the drive jumper appropriately.

"lwest182" <lwest182@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7C9D1BCC-5AF4-40C5-AD64-CEC5E8941D52@microsoft.com...
> My Seagate external hard drive has been working fine for months then all
> of a
> sudden this message appears:
> "Device not recongnized"
> "One of the USB Devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and
> Windows does not recongnize it."
> It now shows up as UNKNOWN DEVICE The recomendation is to reconnect it and
> if that does not work replace it.
> I took the Hard Drive and connected it to another computer running
> Windows XP and Vista and it comes up as unknown device also.
> I have so many important files back up onto it and it decides to do this
> lol.
> Ive searched everywhere online and was hoping someone may know what I ca
> do
> Thank You
 
Have you tried replacing the cable that connects the external drive to your
computer? This is not a likely item to fail, but it is worth replacing it
just in case
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"lwest182" <lwest182@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7C9D1BCC-5AF4-40C5-AD64-CEC5E8941D52@microsoft.com...
> My Seagate external hard drive has been working fine for months then all
> of a
> sudden this message appears:
> "Device not recongnized"
> "One of the USB Devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned and
> Windows does not recongnize it."
> It now shows up as UNKNOWN DEVICE The recomendation is to reconnect it and
> if that does not work replace it.
> I took the Hard Drive and connected it to another computer running
> Windows XP and Vista and it comes up as unknown device also.
> I have so many important files back up onto it and it decides to do this
> lol.
> Ive searched everywhere online and was hoping someone may know what I ca
> do
> Thank You
 
I fixed the problem by moving the hard drive into another enclosure and now
it works perfectly again and the new case is alot nicer lol
 
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