Resolved Rock Mobile Disk Red Light - Wont Recognize

I have a Rock Mobile 225 GB disk. Last night the power went out. Now we can not access the disk, and a red light is blinking. The USB connects and makes the connection noise to both my laptop and desktop, but it doesnt register that an external hard drive exists when looking at My Computer.

What can be done here? I need to retrieve and reback up all of the data, which needless to say, is very important to me.

Thank you.

 

Type Rock mobile disk in your search engine and the results will show you are not the only one to have problems with this product. Take a look at this link, the pictures of what is inside the drive are quite alarming.

http://raaque.blogspot.com/2009/05/stay-away-from-rock-mobile-disk.html

It seems that the manufacturer buys all the dodgy hard drives they can get there hands on, stuff them into an unventilated box and sell them for a quick profit, knowing full well that the drive will fail fairly soon. Did yours get very hot?

The only solutions I can suggest to retrieve your data is to remove the drive from the box and put it into your desktop. Failling this, if your data is worth the money, take it to a data retrievel firm.

 

If you connect it into a desktop computer and you can "see" it, run Error Checking (CHKDSK) on it.

 

Thank you for the advice. Can you give me directions on how to remove the drive and install it in my desktop? I have never done that before, but I have installed a couple of RAM storage cards.

Thanks again.

 

OK, take a look at the link I gave you in post 2, this shows how to remove the drive from the Rock Mobile case.

Then remove the left side panel from your desktop computer and hopefully you will find spare connectors that will fit the drive from the Rock Mobile. Let us know what you find and if none of the connectors match the Rock drive you will need adapters. You may find that the connectors that go to your DVD player will fit so use those as that will be fine for seeing if you can retrieve the data. Once connected it should show up in explorer.

Do not disconnect your existing hard drive and always shut down the computer and unplug the power supply before changing any connections.

 

grandstrand,

Please complete your system details, this will help determine which if any adapters you may require.

If this is your main system it would be helpful if you add your system details to your profile. Please click on the link and follow those instructions it could save some time when resolving this or further issues.

A common error is to forget to show your system details in your profile

If you do add your system specifications be sure to do the above

 

I have updated my specifications to the best of my ability. Please let me know if I am good to go with pulling this drive out of the external hard drive and placing it in my computer.

Also, not sure what this means: "Let us know what you find and if none of the connectors match the Rock drive you will need adapters. You may find that the connectors that go to your DVD player will fit so use those as that will be fine for seeing if you can retrieve the data."

I dont know what a "connector" or "adapter" is. Perhaps that will be evident when I pull everything apart. Any clarification would be helpful. Are you suggesting I use audio visual cables for my DVD player? Or is there a piece inside my DVD player that I should be disassembling and using?

Thanks again for your advice

 

I'll repeat...

A common error is to forget to show your system details in your profile

If you do add your system specifications be sure to do the above

 

Please follow the instructions in the dark blue box of post No6 as your system spec has not appeared.

When I said connectors I am referring to the plugs that go into the hard drive in your desktop computer. There will be two plugs one for data and one for power supply.

You need to compare the sockets (that the plugs go into) on the top edge of the hard drive in your desktop computer with the sockets of the hard drive from the Rock Mobile and see if they are the same.

Then post your observations and we will take it from there.

Unfortunately hard drives don't all have the same connectors (plugs).

Don't worry you will not need to take your DVD player apart.

 

Fixed setting so you can see my System Specifications...sorry not so intuitive.

 

If you PM me your email address I can send you some pictures of the various plugs which may speed things up a bit.

Don't know how to? just left click on my user name in any of my posts and you will see the link in the drop down list.

 

Pretty sure that SIW didn't say "Don't Know" for motherboard, I'll leave you with Mark for now, but please try and follow instructions in future.

 

Sorry, the instructions don't tell me where to find the motherboard information. I Google'd it, and couldn't find an easy answer as well. I appreciate the help.

I have attached a picture to show the two plugs...with zero experience with this, I don't know if I just pull it apart, or if I will do damage by pulling it apart. Please advise. Thanks.

 

OK I have found your desktop on the Dell site and you have the older type of connectors on the hard drive. If you can just confirm it has a flat wide ribbon cable running to it about two inches in width and the power cable with four coloured wires with a plug about one inch wide.

There should be another spare power plug hanging somewhere from those four coloured wires. Also, there should be a spare connector further up the ribbon cable. Please confirm this.

Now have a look at the hard drive from the Rock Mobile and see if the spare plugs will go into it. Confirm this before you try and plug it in.

 

When I did my last post your last post was not there.

Anyway, looking at the pic, this looks like it will match the plugs in your PC. The plugs will pull off, the wide ribbon connection will be tight.

Now read my last post and see if you can find the spare plugs in the PC, with power off confirm they will fit before the next stage.

Getting late here now (I'm in Spain) so will be back on line in the morning.

 

So from what I can understand, within my desktop's tower, will be two spare plugs for connecting the external hard drive. The plugs should look identical, one small and one big ribbon. Once I have connected these, what do I do? Do I run my PC with the cover open? (I don't know if there is a place to ***** down/lock down my external hard drive into my tower - that isn't clear). If so, I would assume that this external hard drive will show up in my My Computer list of drives, and I will then have to move all my data from there to my existing hard drive (C for the desktop computer. Once on the desktop, I am assuming I need to find another backup external hard drive, and then copy my new C: drive content onto that backup external and practice some more effective storing protocols.

I don't believe I have enough disk space on my old desktop to take care of all of my external hard drive files. So that may slow me up a bit.

The bigger issue is stated earlier - how do I run, with cover open? lock down external drive inside tower?

Thanks again.

 

Ok Grandstand, you are on the right track now. To save a lot of messing about you can quite safely run your desktop with the side off. Prop up the external hard drive with the cables connected making sure the exposed circuit board area on the drive is clear of the computer casing. I use this very same method to back up my entire hard drive to another spare one.

If all goes well and you can get the drive plugged in then boot up the PC. As long as the external drive has not been fried you should be able to read off it in windows explorer and transfer the files.

Lets see how it goes.

I got your email but no need to send any pics at the moment.

 

Hello!

I am pleased to say that I have been able to recover all files off the Rock Mobile hard drive. I have also instituted a true archiving process that will hopefully keep me out of this mess. I have purchased two separate My Book Essential external hard drives - one acts as my computer hard drive while the other is a true offsite backup.

Pending Issue:
I have deleted all files off of the Rock Mobile drive now that everything is backed up. Boy did that take all night - I think thats because of the internal desktop connection on the drive....However, is there a way to ensure everything is wiped clean off the drive and also, how do I dispose of it?

Thanks.

 

That's great news, I am so pleased I was able to help you recover files that would otherwise be lost. This also confirms that the power supply in the Rock Mobile was the problem. You won't be recommending Rock Mobile to anyone then

Doing a full format on the drive will erase the files but a deep scan might retrieve some. There is probably some free software you could download that will wipe the disc completely but if you want to be really sure it can't be retrieved take the discs out and burn them, then bin it

Please mark this post as resolved.

 

So as a novice with drives, my drive is labeled F:

How do I do a "formatting?" Where to I enter commands? I need a step by step guide on how to wipe clean the Rock Mobile external hard drive that is now connected to my desktop. Thank you. Remember - I dont even know how to enter in commands - im guessing theres some sort of basic system I go in to enter commands for specific drives.