Question on failed external HDD

[Scraper]

Hi,

Running Win 7 and have just encountered an issue with my Medion 1GB external HDD MD 90190. It has been working until yesterday. Now when I connect it to the usb outlet on my pc and power it up it does not appear as a computer drive - the light comes on and I can hear it spinning and then there is a clicking sound and it shuts down.

The drive is about 4 years old - is there any hope for this drive in terms of use and content salvageablity? Or is it now a paperweight?

Any input would be appreciated,

Scraper

[Bodgekin]

Hi Scraper, 

Have you tried testing the drive on another USB port or even another system? Just to make sure its not an USB power issue.

Though I fear the clicking noise you describe might point to a more serious issue with the harddrive itself. If all else fails you might be able to recover some data by removing the harddrive from its housing and connecting it in your PC as a regular internal drive. Be advised though that this will likely void any warranty!

[Scraper]

Hi Bodgekin,

Thanks for your advice!

Done that, but to no avail.

Earlier my Action Center says that it had 1 problem while trying to read something on my external HDD and it suggested to run the hard disk error-checking tool. So i try and it says it needs to force a dismount of the HDD. No big deal i thought. I've done that before. So it dismounts it and runs the tool. Well everything comes back clean. So i go back to my computer and try and get into the external hardrive. What happens? My computer almost freezes up and pops up a little message saying "E:\ is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect." So i try and right click on it to see if maybe i can inspect anything. Well again it slows my computer down and pops up with another message that says i need to format the drive in order to use it. Ok i have about 600 Gb of important data on that thing.

Anything i can do?

[joesoap]

If the electronics of the external hard drive are failing the actual hard drive might be fine.

You can take out the hard drive and put it into say an Icybox external hard drive enclosure - the type where you can put in and take out hard drives with one action are the best.