If it ain't one thing its another

Often when an external goes out, the drive itself is fine, the enclosure hardware fails. Take it apart and connect the drive to another computer(you'll need one with a HDD dock, or a usb adapter setup to connect it) and see if it still works. If it does, just buy a new enclosure.

Yeah, like Wiz said, often it's the enclosure breaking down... most often in the connection itself.  Try taking it out of the case and hooking up to a PC.  If all is well then see if you can get hold of another connecter [like used/2nd-hand] before buying a new external casing.

I took the outer case off. The cable has a usb on one end but I don't know what you call the other connector. After getting it all apart I found what looks like a burn mark on one of the traces. I think its the ground plane.

That would be on the connecter assembly inside the case?  How is the HDD itself... any damage you can see?  Or is that burn mark on the board on the underside of the HDD?

The burn mark is on the board connected to the HD. I saw no visible damage to the drive itself. At any rate the board is toast. If this was a few years back I would have fixed the board but because some of it is embedded and the components surface mount its far cheaper to get a new one. I tossed it but kept the drive. Now all I have to do is find a PC that I can connect it to. It doesn't look like a standard connect, at least not one I'm familiar with.

Take the hdd to a computer repair shop near you with your laptop.  See if the guy will let you hook the drive up to another ext. case... tell him if it's the case and the price is right, you'll get the new one from him.

Worth a try...

Not a SATA connection?

Would be IDE, surely... I thought they were phased out long ago, production-wise.

So, WTF else could it be???

BTW, I suppose it's prudent to ask, brand and what type of drive it is, and portable or powered?

Is it a 3.5 or a 2.5?

That might help us find some answers.

I'm posting a pic. Take a look at the board. You may have to zoom a bit but I believe there is a burn mark just below the bar code on the right. Its a Western Digital SATA.

I forgot this part lol............WD10EADS 1.0TB Western Digital.

It's a bit hard to tell from that pic, but yeah, it may be a burn mark.

In any event, it'd be worth your while to take the drive to somebody who could run it for you to see if it posts in the BIOS and in Windows.  If so it would be worth geting a cheapie case for it.  If not, it's an expensive process to recover data from such a drive.  I asked about it once and the cost was staggering so I pitched the drive in the trash.

Hopefully, me old mate, it'll run for you.  Fingers crossed here!

Worst comes to worst I'll wait until I can replace it. Thanks for your help guys.

Bottom left looks a bit odd too.

Yup. That's what made me consider the ground plane. To me it looks like a short. And the two chips next to it up top...done!

Ross, those drives have a 2 year warranty.  I'm not sure how you'd go now it has been taken apart, but it's worth a shot to reassemble it and try for a replacement. 

I had a WD 200Gb portable that died within 3 weeks of purchase, so I took it back for a replacement and you'd never guess, the replacement died within a month as well.  It was put down to a bad batch [others experienced similar fail times] and I had no waiting or anything, just a swap then and there.

Those circuit board traces and some of the components on the board show signs of corrosion actually, almost as if it had been under water ir exposed to high humidity for a long period of time. Starkers mentioned a 2 year warranty Ross, but I have seen some of that companies drives having a 5 year warranties.  Might be worth looking in to.

I just purchased a new Dell 1tb external drive myself, luckily they are no longer that expensive, under $80. http://www.pricewatch.com/gallery/hard_removable_drives/usb_1tb

If your budget allows it, you could pick up one of these to access your data, as long as the drive is still good.

I have two hard drive docking stations both dual HD units, USB 2 and USB 3, on my desktop.  Unfortunately the are not what you want to use with a laptop if you plan to be mobile, they don't get their power via the USB you need to pug it in to a power source.

Philly, I aggree.

Since it's a 3.5" drive in the picture, the original external drive required a seperate power source anyway. A docking station would at least be an alternative means to access the data on the drive.

Again... maybe try a local computer store (privately owned).

There's a Computer Doctor two blocks from my place. I've done business there before. I'm thinking of taking the drive in and seeing if I can get a replacement enclosure for it. Thanks folks for your suggestions. CG1...gonna check out that link now.

That Thermaltake enclose looks sweet! And for $23 bucks.....that's steal. I'll have that by the end of the month so its just a matter of paying for it. Newegg no longer accepts checks, money orders or online bill pays. I guess a pre-paid card of sorts would be best. I just need to find their mailing address. Its not listed on the page I was at. 

I've got one of those drivebays built into my case [a Thermaltake BTW] and it's hooked up to a SATA3 port, so is pretty quick when using SATA3 drives. It was a damned good investment, this case, as I have several drives that no longer need external caddies to access their contents.

However, I have been considering something along the lines of this 5 drive SATA caddy...

As you can see, it has 5 individual  SATA ports to access all drives simultaneously, but it only requires 2 power connections to fire them up.  Being that I have a PC upstair and downstairs, plus Shaunna's and a guest machine, I figured such a caddy could be the way to move them between PC's as a whole rather than being carried around loose... I think they'd be easier to drop that way.  I'm looking at around $180 - $190 AUD from the company whose banner is across the pics.  However, that is quite reasonable, I think, given it's free shipping from Hong Kong and the same or similar product would likely cost me twice that in Australia... PLUS shipping.

I think just one will do, for now anyway.