Computer doesn't recognize external hdd

I have a maxtor one touch III hdd connected to my PC, but I can't find the drive in "My Computer." I checked device manager to see if it was there. It was there, no question marks or whatever. I went into the device's property and under the volumes tab and under status it says "unreadable". I'm worried about losing my data on there. Is there any way to make it readable?

OS: Vista home premium (32bit)

Edit: I think it's the hdd itself (tested on multiple computers and on different usb ports). Is there a way to recover the data in it? I need to pull the data out before attempting to reformat it.

 

If your external HDD is brand new no data, you can try partition and format the external HDD first.

By partitioning, you will lost all data on the external HDD.

To backup the data, try take the HDD out and use on working desktop PC as a slave drive, hope you can back up the data.

Hope this helps!
Bill

 

My hdd already contains data in it so formating it is a no no.

It's a 2.5" hard drive so it won't fit into a 3.5" bay unless I buy one of those things where you can mount a 2.5" onto a 3.5" rack and install it into a 3.5" bay. But then again I don't have to as long as I get the right interface. It's a maxtor one touch III mini and it uses USB. The question is what sort of interface is it using inside the chassis? IDE or SATA? What if I can't hook it via SATA or IDE in the situation where I can't open the chassis? Is there such thing as a IDE/SATA to USB adapter? What do I have to do after when I set it as slave [need some more walkthrough]? Sorry for the many questions lol.

 

Have you tried a different cable? Another option is load a Linux distro (puppy Linux is very small and intuitive) if Linux can't see it, you probably have a unit that is failing. Another option (if it will come apart) is place the hard drive in another disk enclosure - might just be the controllers in your current one.

 

Try a different cable and a different power adapter.

 

Tried different usb. Didn't work. Either the hdd is missing important system files or there are bad sectors preventing it from being recognized.

I couldn't get it to open.

 

If the computer can read the HD in Disk Management (which it seems like it can), use the TestDisk utility.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testdisk
www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

I just used it last night (along with a IDE/SATA to USB converter for my old internal drives from another PC) and it worked great. Let us know how that goes!
RM

 

Yes, there are external IDE+SATA to USB adapters for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives.
I have one similar to this, and using it is quite straightforward: plug the naked drive into the adapter, plug the USB cable into the adapter and the USB port on your PC, and power up the adapter using the supplied power brick.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

 

I can't open the enclosure to expose the SATA/IDE connectors; it's bolted shut. I'm left with a mini usb to usb connection. There are 2 ways I can do this. Connect the USB to a female USB->SATA/IDE adapter which then is hooked up to the mobo's SATA/IDE connectors. Basically USB->SATA/IDE adapter->SATA/IDE connectors on mobo. I can treat this hdd as a slave and I might be able to pull the data out of there.

Alternatively I can try out Linux (Knoppix or Ubuntu) to see if it can detect the contents.

I don't know if a "female" usb->IDE/SATA adapter exists. I only see Male USB.