External Hard Drive Problems

Good Morning,

I have been using a Buffalo External Hard Drive for a long time to weekly back up my computer. I recently got a new computer and now when I plug in the drive it detects it but thinks it is a new External DVD disc drive and doesn't show any of my data. It shows up with an installation set up menu. I have tried plugging it in to different USB drives and computers but I have had no luck.

Any ideas?

Hi emers21 and welcome to our forum

If your external hard drive will not work in a known working computer, then its very possible that the external drive or its electronics have failed

To double check try it again in a known working computer and if you can access the drive then copy off all your important stuff from it immediately!

Also try booting into a live distro of Linux on your "home machine"

 and see if this will read it… Linux Puppy is good, and a relatively small download (around 100Mb or so)  You don't need to install Puppy Linux it will run quite happily in RAM…

Also try a known good working USB cable ( if the existing one can be easily removed….. some are some are not!)

Your important stuff should be backed up with several copies, on removable media, but if for any reason it's not, then it may be worth consulting a data recovery firm…. however be advised this is not an inexpensive procedure…

Post back and let us know how you get on.

Regards

paws