External hard drive- power issue.

Hello all. Brand new on this site. I'd be grateful for any ideas.
I'm using an iMac desktop- not too wizzy, but capable. El Capitan, 10.11.06

After some time not using it, I plugged in a Buffalo external hard drive to check the contents; mostly stored music. It seems not to power up; I'm leaving it, for a few hours, in the hope that it does. I see the power light flash, briefly.

It is all intact, no physical trauma. What I have read suggests a five year lifespan, possibly- which is around its age. It has hardly been hammered with use, so the disk ought to be ok. Advice suggests not even leaving it plugged in- it hasn't been, for a year; and no power surges.

Any ideas? I'm resigned to maybe going a store, to have it rescued.

 

Hi Tony

Thanks for your interest, and advice. I'm playing 'wait and see', at the moment. The drive had only been used, I think, on this Mac. Disk Utility wasn't showing it, even after restarts.

I saw another site suggest a 'bricked' drive might just be slow to crank up. They had a 1TB drive to revive, and apparently had to 'write the directories afresh'. Mine is just 500GB.

It does seem to be warming up, slightly, so I'll leave it a while, overnight; it's probably also a 'slow' USB cable. Good idea to try another machine; I will pop into work, and try my work PC, if nothing happens.

Alan

 

Good call on seeing if it is detected on another computer. If the drive is ok, a Windows computer will detect the drive, but won't be able to read the file system unless a file "translator" program is installed.

If the drive isn't detected on another computer, then either the AC adapter is defective (if it's a 3.5 inch drive), the USB cable is defective, or the drive itself is defective.

 

Also Alan, I forgot to include the possibility that the circuit board between the AC adapter and the drive itself may be defective. The circuit board can be bypassed by removing the drive from the enclosure and connecting it directly to another computer via a SATA connection. However, the chances of the issue being the circuit board is very low.

 

Hello again, and thanks for ideas.

Update: leaving the drive in the Mac's USB port overnight, with Disk Utility open and searching, just showed the program buffering, the drive hardly warmer.

I dropped in at work, plugged into a PC. This produced whirring sounds, and a regular 'click' sound, I guess the disc and its reader.

Didn't like the implications, so have disengaged. I just newly registered on a Buffalo forum (this is fun....) and see a lot of very tech-savvy topics! It seems to be Sunday 6a.m. there, so not much action, yet.

I should add, other suggestions on there include accessing and re-siting the components. This drive appears to be hermetically sealed, with no screws, etc.

Alan

 

Yes, I wasn't happy with that clicking.
The Buffalo forum (for earlier issues, unrelated) has suggested taking one apart, and putting the disk into another housing to read and/or save any data.
The unit itself is basically a brick now, though not as useful...