My external hard disk isn't working....

[winifred]

I have an external hard disk 500GB, whenever I plug into pc, my computer hang...I have tried it on laptop and change the cable too but no use...
Someone says it might need to reformat but I have to backup first before losing all the data..but how to reformat or backup the data? since it hangs whenever I plug in...

[spiel]

This might be because your drive is too full and your PC too old.
With my old PC once I started up my external (which really has a lot on it) everything would freeze for at least 10 minutes, after which the PC finally processed everything and I could get to work again.
So maybe you just need a bit of patience?

I'm no expert though, so sorry if this is not it

[winifred]

I think nope..my pc has been using for a year and laptop is newly bought and HDD still have 400GB+ free space...
But after it hangs for few minutes, a message pop-up which I can't remember, something like...I/O..device error...

[daniyagami]

My suggestion is: take to a repair shop. They will be able to test your hardrive to see what is the problem, point you a solution and save your data if is possible to save. I think is the safest and faster thing to do.
Sometimes can be just the cable, sometimes can be the HD chip and replacing those, the HD will work.

[spiel]

go to my computer -> right click on the external drive and choose properties -> then click on tools -> click on check-error in the error checking section -> click automatically fix errors -> and then the computer will ask you to reboot computer

Maybe this helps?

[winifred]

daniyagami>> maybe weekend I will bring to the shop since weekdays are busy with work....just to see whether can get solution from net...TvT

spiel>> You mean click on the external drive icon?but once i plug in, even I go to My Computer the pc already hang, can't click anything...

[spiel]

But just now you said that you got an error message... I assumed after you OKed that you could work it normally, just not access the drive

If it's like that going for repairs, like dani said, is the only thing I can think of that might help

[daniyagami]

Since it doesn't mount, the only thing that I can think is that a cable, port or chip problem... and there is no way to fix those at home unless you have extra hardware and know exactly what you are doing... the only thing that I could suggest is to take to a repair shop...

[InuShikaCho]

I/O device error...I had this problem before though it was with a flash drive.
Anyways, did it fall from a high place before or did someone shake it too much? Or any accident that happened with your HDD. 'Cause if it does, I think the HD itself could be the problem, and sadly it's impossible to get everything back again. For short it's completely broken. I broke my brother's HDD before and we tried everything to revive it or just backing up the files (sorry if I scared you xD)

But if not, either you reformat your computer/HDD. For your HDD, try plugging it to any computer with higher upgrades and if it opens you can see the 'reformat' in the right click, like spiel said, it could be because your computer can't handle the requirements of your HDD. For computers...ugh, try consulting to a computer technician. xD Sometimes it could be because of a virus in your computer? or sth.

I'm not sure how to make back-ups though, I'll try asking to some people about it.
Then again, the best solution would always be bringing it to the repair shop

[angerbda]

Had similar issues with external WD drives.
Usually it happens when they are disconnected/reconnected often (I had a problem with the cable connection in fact)
And it was not even available/found by the computer management.

First thing would be to try running a checkdisk as spiel was proposing. This might help solving some of the problems.
Second thing, depending on the brand/supplier of you r external hard drive, you might be able to find troubleshooting/diagnostic tools on their website. With WD, there was a diagnostic and scan dis tool I could download to try solve the issue.
Third thing, if you see the drive in the computer management (Administrative tools>Computer management) but cannot access from 'My Computer', you could try to format it from here...

With the last problem I had, however, none of the simple check and diagnostic were working, and I had hubby to look at it. He had to plug directly the hard drive as a slave in one of the computer, it was the only way the drive was readable at the end... He was able to save some of the file then reformat it afterward...

So, try the cleaning/diagnostic, and if you can't find no help with the support of your drive provider (check their support website, you could find alternative possibilities for solution), turn to some technical support.