Hard drive not working

[swampydrill]

I have a small 2.5" portable hard drive, the hard drive is a Hitachi HTS541612J9ATOO ATA/IDE model. My laptop suddenly does not recognise it even though the power light comes on, on the drive, have tried a different cable and hard drive but still does not work. I really need the information that is on the hard drive and would be grateful of some help.
Many Thanks

 

[Deluks]

Get hold of a new external USB enclosure, will cost about £6 from somewhere like scan, aria, ebuyer etc. as for why the lappy is not recognising it, you might just have to uninstall/reinstall usb drivers. In fact do that first.

Assuming it is a usb connection.

 

[swampydrill]

I have tried this drive in 3 different PC's now and still not getting recognised, there is a slight clicking noise with it but that is something i heard from it before it stopped working. It is IDE so wondering if i can buy a usb - ide cable

 

[Deluks]

I have tried this drive in 3 different PC's now and still not getting recognised, there is a slight clicking noise with it but that is something i heard from it before it stopped working. It is IDE so wondering if i can buy a usb - ide cable

Yes you can, and they are very handy, but they are usually for 3.5" IDE. Laptop drives use a different IDE connector, so make whatever you get will use 2.5" drives.

Like this

But be warned, clicky drive is usually the click of death!

JohnD will be along in a minute with your lines.

 

[swampydrill]

Took the hard drive out of the case, gave a few wee taps and put it back in, after 3-4 attempts it suddenly started working and have managed to back up 50gb of files gathered through the last 4 yrs or so. Have learnt a valuable lesso regarding backing up, what is peoples ideas as to really good hard drives, are western digital good?

 

[Deluks]

You are a lucky chap!

As regards to reliability, a drive can only considered to be reliable if you've backed it up

Maxtor, Samsung, W.D. and Hitachi/IBM are the main ones. One's as good as another, although on internet forums you will hear horror stories about every brand.
The main thing you can do is to not let it overheat. Some people have 2 or 3 drives, one atop the other in an unventilated corner of their case and wonder why they keep breaking down.

I am currently using Samsung in my lappy and desktop machine, as they have a 5 year warranty and are pretty quiet.