# Iomega 1TB External, total death or slightly recoverable?



## Implosion (Mar 29, 2006)

Hello again !

This time its neither desktop nor laptop issues. Just my 2 year old external HD Iomega 1 tb. I have read through some other posts here and it does make that "horrible clicking noise" which would perhaps indicate a broken needle and in that case I will carry my sadness with solid nobilityover losing my 700GB of collected data. 

However, here is the real question, I opened my sweet baby up and took a look inside the case. I was actually quite surprised to see that there are two 500gb drives in there. 

The chance of both needles being broken is slim and since there is only one repeated "clicking" I am quite certain that it is only the "mother" of the two which is broken. However since I can not start the first one the other one can't be read either. I was wondering if there is any way of bypassing the first one and get to the second one and perhaps try to salvage some data without having to hand it in to overprized professionals ?

I do not have access to any desktop computers to actually plug it into, also one of the drives seems to be connected directly into the circuitboard or atleast stuck into the actual box with some mysterious force like glue or such like. 

Appreciate any help provided. 

//Implosion

Might add that the model is MDHD10T-U2


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

There are a few models available with multiple disks inside. The most likely culprit would be a failed ckt board in the case. You could try getting another external case or an external adapter (such as this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ..._re=bytecc_usb_adapter-_-12-156-102-_-Product ) to test the drives.


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## idtent (Aug 13, 2003)

To revive a dead thread! 
I had an issue at work with this model. Same symptoms. The drives powered seperatly had no problems, spun up initialized etc...
9/10 times it is the power brick. You can meter out the four pins and find the 12v and 5 volt. Cut off the end and put on some type of molex to plug into power supply. I soldered on and used an atx power supply, tried portable but not enough current and drives got hot!

Just a suggestion for anyone else searching!


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## Facherty (Apr 5, 2011)

Had the identical problem. From reading around the web, there appears to be a consensus that the power supply should be your first port of call, even when its green light is on, and the Iomega's blue light is on. Fortunately, I have a Packard Bell drive with an identical power supply, and I just swapped them over. Sprang back to life again...

On YouTube there's also a video of a guy fixing the power supply. They are approximately £30 to replace from Iomega, so it might be worth a try if you're technically minded...

Do not re-format or disassemble the drive until you have tried the power supply.


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