PC help please

[nsulham]

Ok here's the lowdown. I have an external hard drive I use to put most of my media files, etc. on since my C drive is almost full (It's a Maxtor 3000LE if you need specs).

Anyway I've had it for 2 years with no problems but just this morning it froze up so I rebooted. During the reboot it didn't recognize the drive and now when I try to access it, the computer doesn't recognize it and I get error code 10, "Device cannot start".

I've tried uninstall, reinstall, unplugging, etc. to no avail. My roommate comes home from vacation tomorrow so I'm going to have him hook it up to his PC and see if it works. If it doesn't then I know it's the drive. Sucks too since I had all my songs on there and everything.

So anyone have any ideas? BTW I'm not TOO tech-savvy so if you have any ideas on how to solve it, please be detailed. Thanks

[SHOCKandAWE]

You may be better trying to post this on a Geeks website. I hear Neowin is a good site to get info on this kind of stuff.

Neowin.com

Try their messagboards

[perlick29]

Whenever I have a technical problem I always google it first to find forums that may be of some help. Here's an example although it may not be the exact one for you:

http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=395

Keep checking different sites off of google to see if you can get help since I cant help you but I can lead you to a place where others can.

Just google the exact error message.

[nsulham]

Yeah I've done the google thing pretty much all day. SOme of it was useful but nothing that worked.

Maybe I'll try that geek website.

[SHOCKandAWE]

neowin has really helped me with hardware issues. I say try it!

[SHOCKandAWE]

My fault it is neowin.net not .com

[blankman]

I've seen two other Maxtor external drives have huge problems. I'll never buy from them again.

I lost quite a bit of stuff on one of their drives- at least 35 GB worth of TV shows

I can't answer your question though; sorry.

[slomo007]

As you mentioned, try hooking it up to someone else's computer. Is it a USB drive? If so, do you have other USB devices that do work?

[Invictus]

I heard that those drive's have a tendency to sorta "blow up" when they overheat. By blow up i mean erase their flash mem. Im not TOO tech savvy, but i know that the external drive's (unless you get the really expensive kinds) have a perpensity to erase themselves. No guarentee that is indeed what has happened to your drive, but i would start preparing for the worst news .

[Madison]

As you mentioned, try hooking it up to someone else's computer. Is it a USB drive? If so, do you have other USB devices that do work?

That's what my wife said when I read her the post. She's a tekkie, and her first thought was to try a different USB port or cable. If that doesn't work and you're using a hub, then try to connect straight to the computer. If it's firewire try connecting it to another PC.

Hope that helps.