HP External hard disk not detected in my Win10 laptop

[Sarwan1]

Hello,

I'm having an issue with my HP portable hard drive, which was working very fine until last month. I'm using it more than 3 years now.

Problem:

Portable hard drive not detecting in my Win10 Laptop!

Importance:

It contains 650 GB of data (having very important lifetime events in there, including my baby's first crawl). please help me recover my HDD or guide me to recover the data inside. 

Facts:

1. I hear the hard drive sound spin (interruped by a beep sound, & repeats)

2. Nothing shows up on disk management

3. It shows up as "Portable HD BB07" in taskbar (under Remove external drive option)

4. The LED indicator blinks whenever its connected with the computer, but Not showing up anything on my PC or disk management

[IT_WinSec]

Hello,

The HDD might be dead it could be some software issue with your PC.

Try to connect the HDD on a different USB port on your PC

Get the HDD out of the box and purchase/use different SATA>USB connector/cable like this one

Try to plug the HDD on a different computer and see if it works there

Let me know how it goes.

[IT_WinSec]

Tip:

Generally speaking , in order to avoid situations like these where you are scared for your data, ensure you have at least 2 copies of your most important files/data. Use another drive to create a back-up (copies) of your important data.

You may also consider using some cloud storage service (paid options) like Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, etc....

[Sarwan1]

Hello Friend,

I tried connecting with a different PC/Laptop, no actions.
Everytime when I connect my HDD, I could see the Hard Drive Name, Since this issue raises, I could see only the name as Portable HD BB07 in the taskbar.

I'm worrying if all my data would have been lost? Could you please tell me what all the possible reasons, that this kind of Hard disk failures?

Any possible soultions, I can retrieve my data from my HDD? Please suggest.

Thank you,

[IT_WinSec]

---

@Sarwan1 wrote:

Hello Friend,

I tried connecting with a different PC/Laptop, no actions.
Everytime when I connect my HDD, I could see the Hard Drive Name, Since this issue raises, I could see only the name as Portable HD BB07 in the taskbar.

I'm worrying if all my data would have been lost? Could you please tell me what all the possible reasons, that this kind of Hard disk failures?

Any possible soultions, I can retrieve my data from my HDD? Please suggest.

Thank you,

---

Hi @Sarwan1

There are 3 components in this case which needs to be verified:

1) the HDD itself

2) the cable/connector - makes connection between external HDD and the computer

3) the computer itself

You have tried with a different computer which confirms the problem is not in your own PC (component (3) ).

Based on the symptoms most likely the hard disk drive failure.

If you need to get the HDD out of the box (if you use such a box) and use a different connector (different cable or adapter) like the one I placed picture of above. This will test/verify the component (2)

If it still fails with different cable/connector, this confirms that the HDD is unreable.

If your data cannot be read by a different PC and even with a different cable/connector, then this will confirm 100% that the HDD is unreable/failed. This will mean that the data is probably lost.

If  your HDD is confirmed unreadable/inaccessible/corrupted, chances for data access/recovery are very low. There are some companies specialized in data recovery and they might be able to access data on your HDD (even it it is corrupted), but there is no guarantee and this would be a rare chance (low chance) , and their services are usually expensive. I cannot recommend such a company as I not aware of the companies in your region. Nothing else is possible, I am afraid.

I recommend you try with a different cable/connector. If the HDD is confirmed unreadble on at least 2 computers, HDD is 100% failed.

As mentioned above, if you keep very important data, consider using even a second backup (back-up of your data, back-up of the back-up), consider using online storage paid services such as Microsoft Office 365/OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc....

Google plans are the best, IMO.

Let me know how it goes