# External Hard Drive Won't Spin Up



## kpteer

I am not new to Macintosh but, as soon as you open the box, I'm lost. I try to avoid opening the box.

I have an external hard drive that started acting up last week:

I turned the external drive on and got customary kick start sound followed by a brief whir from the hard drive inside.
Kick start -- whirrrr
Kick start -- whirrrrrrrrrr
Kick start -- whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Kick start -- whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
and then it was off and running.

This has gotten progressively worse.
Of course, at the first sign of trouble, I immediately started to do long-overdue backups to DVD.

Of course I didn't get to finish the backup process before the drive stopped functioning.

I have several files that, if I can't recover them, I would have major problems.

I read once that one can connect an external to a computer as a slave drive to determine whether the it is the drive or the connections that is bad.

If I could find a way to retrieve the data from this old drive and place it on a brand new drive, I would be a VERY happy person.

Thanks.


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## sinclair_tm

When the drive does a click-whir more than once, it's 99.99% the hard drive it self. So I'm 99.999% sure that installing the drive in a Mac will not help you any. If there are really files that you need, and the drive doesn't work after waiting a couple days, then you're only option is to take it to a place the does data recovery from bad drives, and that is not a cheap thing.


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## blackcivic

you could also try and look for apps that do data recovery.... what is the format of the disk? FAT32, HFS?


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## kpteer

The format is Mac OS Extended.
I tried Disk Warrior. Because the drive won't start up, it cannot be seen.
I'm wondering how to try a direct connect to see if it is the box that is bad or the drive itself.
As I stated in the beginning, I am pretty well experienced with the computer except when it comes to opening the box.
Is there a place where I can look at some kind of illustration to show me where to connect tab A to slot B?
Thanks.

"Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream" 
-- Malcolm Muggeridge


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## michaeldrivas1

let me know if i should start a new thread I don't want to jump!

I am having the same prob, i need to recover files from a drive. what software is out there for a mac?


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## MattD313

Is the hard drive powered by USB or another power source?
If it is by USB maybe that's the problem?

I have like 10 external hard drives (all powered by USB)
Most of them work on my MacBook, but some only work on a desktop for some weird reason. 
Additionally those same hard drives won't work when plugged into my iMacs keyboard...

I doubt that is your problem, but thought I'd throw it out there just in case...

Good luck!


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## sinclair_tm

Disk Warrior is pretty much it. If it can't get the files, and you have to have them, you will have to send the drive to a professional data recovery service.


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## Joeswift

There is no need to send the external hard drive to the recovery labs, just try out the *Mac external hard drive recovery* software; it helps you to recover all the files form the drive. It supports HFS, HFSX, HFS + and FAT 32 file systems.


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## sinclair_tm

THis thread is over 2 years old. Don't post in threads more then a couple of weeks old.


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