TKHawke Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 (edited) So I just setup my computer with my 50in TV and of course my dog ran through the wires and messed stuff up. She knocked over my external harddrive. There's no clicking sounds or any visible damage but it did fall directly on it's plug that goes to my computer. The drive still turns on but my computer won't recognize it's there. It's 1.5TB and has almost all my games on there, except skyrim that i'm so grateful I transferred to my internal, so I'm pretty screwed here. Some of these games I don't even have discs for anymore and others will just take hours to re-download them all. I figure since the device can still be turned on there has to be a way that I can still access the files. I don't want to go with taking it to a shop so how can I fix this on my own if that's even possible? EDIT: Just looked where the mini-usb connector of the USB cable connects to my external and it's a little crooked now. Could it just be the port is broken? if so how do i fix that? Edited November 22, 2011 by TKHawke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorkSIDES Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 (edited) ^^Hey mate, in about 90% of external HDDs on the market they are just enclosures with regular HDDs inside of them.Try opening the enclosure and removing the HDD and then install it in your PC internally. The process for removal should be similar to this...HDD removal! Edited November 22, 2011 by dorkSIDES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKHawke Posted November 22, 2011 Author Share Posted November 22, 2011 I have the external out of the enclosure and it's sitting in my PC. Only problem is that I can not find the plugs needed for it. I searched the whole inside of my computer and tried to find plugs like the ones connecting to my 1st HDD since it's the same kind of port. I found one plug that fit to it and took the other from my disc drive to see if it works but even with those plugs it doesn't recognize it on my system. I'm confused what to do now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorkSIDES Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 (edited) Yeah now that you have the HDD in the machine do this.... First check to make sure it is connected to to the PSU/Mother board correctly trough the Sata cables. If so do this... Hit the Start button and type "Dick Management" and enter the program shown in the menu-here you should see all the HDD's connected to your PC and you should have an option to register the ones that are not already formatted to your PC, Make sure not to remove the data on it. I realise the above may not be easily understood with my brief explanation so is a video to guide you. This is a fairly extensive look into the ways of doing it for all copies of windows. Edited November 23, 2011 by dorkSIDES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorkSIDES Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Though I should say you can also-to avoid taking space in PC or having to format it you can just buy a regular HDD enclosure from Amazon for about 20Dollars and slip it into that-since you will have to order new sata plugs anyway/buy them in a pc store. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CommanderCrazy Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 If its not a SATA plug, check to see if its actually PATA (IDE). If it is, then you'll need a PATA Ribbon Cable, which normally ship with the mobo. If not, they are dirt cheap at stores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKHawke Posted November 23, 2011 Author Share Posted November 23, 2011 It's a SATA plug. I got it in after some from one of brother's friends who installed harddrives before. Only problem is, being the total noob at this that I am, I accidentally selected on the new harddrive the option "mark as active partition" thinking that is what allows me to actually access it only to realize that just sets it to be the one to try to boot off of. Realizing my mistake I checked my computer and it no longer recognizes my new harddrive and anytime I start up my computer with it plugged in it keeps trying to boot off of it. So now I don't know what to do and neither does he. Even if plugged in after booting up my, computer doesn't detect it. Is my harddrive ****ed now? -.- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorkSIDES Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 (edited) It's a SATA plug. I got it in after some from one of brother's friends who installed harddrives before. Only problem is, being the total noob at this that I am, I accidentally selected on the new harddrive the option "mark as active partition" thinking that is what allows me to actually access it only to realize that just sets it to be the one to try to boot off of. Realizing my mistake I checked my computer and it no longer recognizes my new harddrive and anytime I start up my computer with it plugged in it keeps trying to boot off of it. So now I don't know what to do and neither does he. Even if plugged in after booting up my, computer doesn't detect it. Is my harddrive ****ed now? -.- It is hard to say without being able to see the problem. Have you tried hitting the "boot menu" key when first turning on your PC?(it should be F12 or F10 but is unique to the motherboard) From the boot menu you will be given the choice of which HDD to launch from-if your primary hdd is not affected by the changes you made you will fin it in the boot menu list. The list should look something like this but with whatever options you have connected. http://www.pendrivelinux.com/wp-content/uploads/boot_harddisk.jpg Your HDD will be listed as its brand and model number. Edited November 23, 2011 by dorkSIDES Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKHawke Posted November 23, 2011 Author Share Posted November 23, 2011 It's a SATA plug. I got it in after some from one of brother's friends who installed harddrives before. Only problem is, being the total noob at this that I am, I accidentally selected on the new harddrive the option "mark as active partition" thinking that is what allows me to actually access it only to realize that just sets it to be the one to try to boot off of. Realizing my mistake I checked my computer and it no longer recognizes my new harddrive and anytime I start up my computer with it plugged in it keeps trying to boot off of it. So now I don't know what to do and neither does he. Even if plugged in after booting up my, computer doesn't detect it. Is my harddrive ****ed now? -.- It is hard to say without being able to see the problem. Have you tried hitting the "boot menu" key when first turning on your PC?(it should be F12 or F10 but is unique to the motherboard) From the boot menu you will be given the choice of which HDD to launch from-if your primary hdd is not affected by the changes you made you will fin it in the boot menu list. The list should look something like this but with whatever options you have connected. http://www.pendrivelinux.com/wp-content/uploads/boot_harddisk.jpg Your HDD will be listed as its brand and model number.I tried doing that just now but when it boots with the HDD connected it just sits at the screen that give me my options of boot menu, system restore, diagnostics, etc. So it freezes it when it boots up with it and if connected after boot the computer doesn't detect that it's there. No wonder I usually don't deal with computers..... :wallbash: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CommanderCrazy Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Simple, unplug it again, boot the PC up, then shut it down. Plug the HDD back in, then start yet again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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