I was hoping not to have to make a post here, but I'm basically lost at this point. Google has stopped being helpful.
I have an HGST drive that used to be in my Thinkpad that I started using as an external when I got a new one to use internally. This external is used to store videos mostly, since I often move between desktop and laptop to watch things.
Recently, plugged it into my computer, the light on the USB 3.0 converter comes on for a bit, then turns off. Doesn't show up in Windows Explorer. Tried another converter and multiple ports to the same effect. As far as I can tell, there's no mechanical failure. It doesn't make any noise aside from the spinning of the disk. What I do know is that using some recovery tools (EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, Data Rescue PC3) allows me to view and get things off the drive. No problem, I can pirate one of those and recover everything.
Is there any hope for the drive itself, though? If possible, I'd like to avoid buying a new drive. Bonus points if the drive is fixable without performing a recovery. Disk Management shows the drive as 100% unallocated space. Theoretically, would recovering the data and reformatting the drive resolve this?
Install Gentoo
>>57214685
Funny you mention that, I tried using Linux to see if the drive would show up there. It didn't.
>>57214675
Maybe I'm being superfluous here but did you try using it with another computah? Maybe even plugging it in directly to the sata port?
>>57214985
I haven't tried a direct SATA connection, but I did try it on my laptop as well as my desktop, no luck. I have another external that works just fine with the two converters.
Well, I went ahead and tried. Recovered what I could find (which seemed to be most of it) and then reformatted the disk. For some reason, the light on the converter still stays off, but the drive gets read by Windows just fine.
This was nice, actually. It let me take the time and think about what I wanted to keep. Ended up getting rid of ~100GB worth of movies and shows.
Thanks for nothing, /g/
>>57215841
Tried what?