Recieved a Lacie 1TB external hard drive from a company to do some work on the video files, it's dec
2 replies, posted
So it's doing all the standard things hard drives do when they crash.
Not showing up on any computer no matter which cord is connecting them.
Beeping for about 10 seconds when I plug it in.
Now I've heard that sometimes it's just an issue of not enough power getting to the drive for whatever reason, and a possible temporary solution is to plug it into a USB wall outlet which would give it bit of a boost so it can be read on a computer. Who knows, I'm an idiot when it comes to these things and it could be complete bullshit. But I figured it was worth a try if it's true.
The files on the hard drive are fairly important, so if there's any risk of damaging the hard drive even more by doing that then I definitely won't. But if it's fine I'll give it a go just to see.
tl;dr Will I destroy my hard drive by plugging the usb into a usb wall outlet?
[QUOTE=darcy010;43175890]tl;dr Will I destroy my hard drive by plugging the usb into a usb wall outlet?[/QUOTE]
Entirely depends on the wall wart powering the USB port.
All that a wall wart USB power plug does is provide the +5v power to the USB connector. But the problem lies in the quality of the power supply providing the +5v. There are literally thousands of shitty Chinese USB power wall warts out there that either can't provide the power they specify, or provide dirty +5v that can destroy devices.
An external hard drive is basically an internal desktop or laptop IDE/SATA drive inside an enclosure that has a cheap IDE/SATA controller to USB converter chip. One common problem with these external enclosures is that either the power or data connector on the drive itself can work itself loose and cause the drive to not work properly.
I'd recommend disassembling the enclosure and removing the drive, then connecting it internally in the computer to remove all of the potential points of failure.
Thanks for the info.
Plugging it in didn't work.
I'm weary of opening it up in case it voids the warranty, as it's not my hard drive. So I'll just email the company and tell them what's happened.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.