External hard drive recognition issue

I have a 500 GB SimpleTech, external hard drive, which I've had for a little over a year. The hard drive runs off an external power cable and uses a 2.0 USB input. For about the past three months my computer has been randomly recognizing and unrecognizing the hard drive. Prior to being on my new computer (HP Pavilion tx 1000 tablet running Microsoft Vista), it ran without problem on my old Toshiba Satellite, which ran XP. I have tried updating the drive to see if that was the issue, which did nothing. I have also tried as someone previously posted, to go to the Device Manager and make sure that all of my Root Hubs were unclicked, for allowing the computer to shut off the power supply when idle. That worked for about 10 minutes, when the problem came back. The hard drive is and always has been in NTSF format, as someone said running it in FAT32 could be problematic for Vista. It's not a power supply issue as every time I turn the hard drive on and off, I can hear it start. At this point I'm ready to throw it out, but the hard drive contains some important materials. Can anyone please help??

 

If the drive is in warranty, get your data out & send it for replacement.

If its out of warranty, get your data out. Open up the case, take out the hard drive & get a new compatible USB casing only. USB casing are known to go bad. You hard disk may be ok.

 

Thanks so much for the reply! I'm not really much of a computer person, is this an easy thing to do? Also, where can I find a replacement casing? Is it something I can find at any electronics store?

 

Hi keic1154...

Yes, it is fairly easy procedure. If your not comfortable doing it yourself you can get someone to help. You can find a replacement enclosure at just about every Electronics and Computer Store. Here are a few examples of enclosures on some "Online" stores...
- http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=92&name=External-Enclosures
- http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat..._tlc.asp?CatId=2777&name=Hard-Drive-Enclosure

 

I just got the new case today and everything seems to be working out well so far. Thanks for all of your help.

 

Good to know