Other External products

[molman13]

I think I've exhausted all my options and it's time to do a warranty claim, but I want to make sure before I send the drive back.

The problem...  I use my OneTouch as a media storage drive, not for backup.  Yesterday, I added some files to it as usual.  Removed the drive safely according Windows, unplugged my drive.  About an hour later I plugged the drive into my bluray player as I always do, but for whatever reason the player would not detect it.  BD player still detects all my thumb drives.  I took my OneTouch back to my PC, plugged it in and nothing.  The power cable works, drive boots up, the light comes on and stays lit steadily.  The USB cable works, and I tested other cables with my drive to no avail.  SeaTools does not detect the drive, nor does Disc Wizard.  Drive does not show up in My Computer, does not show up in Device Manager or Disk Management.  Looked all around the Forums, Knowledge Base, etc. and I just keep going in cirlces, nothing I found addresses the issue.  Nothing...and my drive just sits there and slyly whirrs. It's like a monolith, and I want to start whacking at it with a stick.  But I have refrained. 

I run Windows Vista sp2. My OneTouch 4 is the 500gb version.  Did I miss something, or should I send it back? Thanks for any help.

[AlanM]

Does the drive appear in the Maxtor Manager?

[molman13]

No it does not.  But it definitely powers up and I can tell its spinning.  Could the USB connection port on the drive be bad??  That's the only other thing I can thing of.

[AlanM]

Yes, that is very possible.  If you search on this forum, you'll find many people who have discussed the same thing.

[molman13]

Ok, so it seems that the "fix" is to open the case, remove the drive, buy another enclosure and hope it works?  In doing so would I not void the warranty??  I don't need any of the files back, so why wouldn't I just send it back to get a drive that works? 

[molman13]

Well, this sucks.  Voided the warranty by opening my drive, installed it into a new enclosure.  Still doesn't work, obviously something is wrong with the drive.  Now I have a broken drive and out 25 bucks for an enclosure I don't need.  I suggest to anyone who reads this, just send the drive back if it's under warranty... don't screw around with the stupid forum.