External Harddrive broken?

My external harddrive was happily plugged into my Macbook Pro when an error message wit ha red triangle and an exclamation mark appeared. Then, the harddrive icon disappeared from my desktop. I tried unplugging it and replugging it but it still doesn't show up. I ran my computer in windows and it still doesn't show up. What's wrong with it? My external harddrive still lights up and makes a sound and spins...(btw, my external is a notebook harddrive in a case).

 

How old was the drive? In Windows, go right-click My Computer, Manage, then go to Disk Management and see if anything shows up.

 

Try posting on Apple's excellent users’ forum under Macbook. Certainly one of the hundreds of users can point you in the right direction. Sorry I’m an OS 8 guy, not a clue other than repair permissions.

 

Could be a formating issue or an encryption issue as well.

 

I just tried running disk rescue II but it froze while "gathering device information". I'll try run my computer and windows and see what happens there.

 

Well, I tried it on windows and my the disk management froze. Then, after a couple of minutes, the message "The specified I/O operation on \Device\Harddisk1\DR4 was not completed before the time-out period expired." Is my harddrive gone?

 

Very possible, is it a Toshiba drive and as asked, how old?

Do you have access to other drives or computers for testing?

You might try a new drive, with return privileges, for testing to make sure your USB ports are good.

 

It's a samsung drive and it's very new. I've tried other computers and it still freezes those computers...

 

Don't even waste your time trying to fix it. Get any information backed up (if you can) and return it for a brand new replacement ASAP. Make a huge fuss if they won't do it.

 

I've got two 3.5" Samsung externals in an Acom and SimpleTech case, no problems for over two years. Oh well, it happens. They are not my favorite drives but so far they have been good to me.

As FormFactor said your next step should be obvious since you have now tested on another computer. The drives come with a year warrantee so a huge fuss should not be necessary

 

Is the drive formatted in NTFS or FAT32?

 

5 gigs FAT32 75 gigs HFS+

 

Oh. Here's another puzzling piece of information. Windows device manager recognizes my harddrive and is "working properly". However, if I try to run E:\, a messsage after a couple of minutes tells me that "The specified I/O operation on name was not completed before the time-out period expired. "

Anyone have any ideas?

Edit: It doesn't make any clicking or odd whirring noises...

 

Yep, sounds like it's hurt. Did you not want to return it?