My hard drive has been working fine recently but now all of a sudden it wont turn on. The black box on the power lead has a green light on it so i dont think that the problem is there. If i hold my ear to the hard drive i can hear a slow clicking sound.

Its a toshiba one, 320Gb i think. Its got ALL my work on so desperatley need it!

Any help greatly appretiated!

Sorry to say that your hard drive is probably broken, that is indicated by the clicking noise. It is worth checking however that it is not the electronics of the black box. You can remove the drive from the box and mount it in another (non laptop) computer and test it. There are many data recovery companies which could rescue some or all of your data. There is also a theory that you can deep freeze your disk and it will be temporarily usable!

HTH
Z

I think i will try to change the power cable first, any ideas where i could get a replacement?

bazza,

A clicking sound is never a good sign with a harddrive. :(

As to:

"The black box on the power lead has a green light on it so i dont think that the problem is there......"

I don't think its a problem with the power cable.

Like Z stated, sounds like the 'interface' board has a problem. Happens alot with external drives, IMHO.

I would take the drive out and put it into another computer to check the actual drive out.

Good luck,

Is there a step by step guide on the web anywhere as i havent a clue where to start when taking this External HD apart and putting it into my pc.

Once you open up the external drive's enclosue you will see a 'standard'
'normal' harddrive.

Just unplug the power and interface cables and plug into you other computer.

Good luck,

It lives! When i plug it into the PC downstairs it works (but the blue light on the front no longer lives) I can access all my files. So...what's the problem with my laptop? And what can i do to rectify the problem? Thanks!

Iv heard it may be the power getting to the hard drive from the USB port? iv tried all ports and they dont work with the HDD but they do with a mouse etc!

For future reference. The problem was that my power cable was bust. The clickin noise was a result of not getting enough power to the HDD.Ordered a new cable from Toshiba and now everything is grand!

bazza,

Great that you have it working!!!