# External harddrive



## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

I have an external hard drive my computer does not recognize when I plug it in. It was working fine than one day I plugged it in and nothing. It is a seagate 500 gigabite hard drive. Can I just reformat it and get it to work?


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## Vjk (Apr 28, 2020)

frank b said:


> I have an external hard drive my computer does not recognize when I plug it in. It was working fine than one day I plugged it in and nothing. It is a seagate 500 gigabite hard drive. Can I just reformat it and get it to work?


If you reformat it you will lose any data on it. There are some recovery programs around. Try a different cable and different port if you can.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

I tried a different port and cable. Nothing works. I am not concerned about losing the data as it is old out of date data. Would just like to get the drive working again so I can use it.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

If you can't see it, how will you reformat?

Run updates 
Restart computer
Go to device manager and scan for hardware changes 
Go to disk management and see if it shows


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

It shows up on disk management but it shows 0 bites and 0 space. When you plug it in, it should show up as a usb drive but nothing shows up.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Can you populate it?


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

I would just reformat it.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

frank b said:


> I have an external hard drive my computer does not recognize when I plug it in. It was working fine than one day I plugged it in and nothing. It is a seagate 500 gigabite hard drive. Can I just reformat it and get it to work?


Probably not. And if it does work, you'd need to run thorough diagnostics on it before trusting it. There's a reason the partition disappeared, and even if the drive can be made to work, it has to be considered unreliable until that reason is corrected, if it can be.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

Thanks to all who answered. I will probably discard it. Just thought I could save it.


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## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

I have a large box of old hard drives, both internal and external. When they fail, and they all do, I drop them off at a local computer shop. Over the years they have been able to copy most of my failed drives onto new ones. You can also buy some hardware online that will pretty much do the same thing.


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## Vjk (Apr 28, 2020)

GTX63 said:


> I have a large box of old hard drives, both internal and external. When they fail, and they all do, I drop them off at a local computer shop. Over the years they have been able to copy most of my failed drives onto new ones. You can also buy some hardware online that will pretty much do the same thing.


True, but these days it is cheaper to buy a new hard drive with 10+ X the memory at 1/2 or less of the price. The only real concern is if there was data that was needed which doesn't seem to be the case. BTW, have you tried the HD on a different computer, just to rule out a PC problem?


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

I plugged it in again a few minutes ago and it showed up. I have music on that disk so I clicked on the usb drive and the music folder showed up. Clicked on that folder and nothing. Clicked back on this PC and the drive did not show up. As I said, I will discard it. No use keeping is around if I can not use it.


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## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

I'm referring to retrieving data from a dead drive.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

I run any old and failed drivers through a drill press a number of times and dump it in the recycle bin


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