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Need hard drive help!!!

by localbandpost
11 replies
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I have a fujitsu mpf3204at, hard disc that is mounted in an external case. I know the hard drive is fine, yet I cannot get it to read on my PC... The jumpers are correct, the cables are rightly connected, it is spinning smoothly, and by all rights should be working! I have moved the jumper around to all the settings, tried turning it off and on, just about everything! The hard drive is good and to me it does not make any sense that it would not be working. It does not even show up in the disk manager! I am running Windows 7, yet Microsoft has no reports of this being a bug, should I try closing the 1394 port? will that help? Has anyone had this problem before?
  • Profile picture of the author Adi E
    Do you have all the correct drivers etc? Firmware up-to-date? Or What about trying on a different Operating system - I know Windows 7 should be compatible but its always worth a try

    Adi
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    • Profile picture of the author localbandpost
      Don't know how to upgrade firmware on this hard disk, but yes I have the drivers, and I have tried it on a vista machine as well as an xp machine... Same deal on those.
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  • Profile picture of the author KimW
    Then the hard drive IS probably faulty. What makes you think it isnt?
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  • Profile picture of the author Janet Sawyer
    Originally Posted by localbandpost View Post

    I have a fujitsu mpf3204at, hard disc that is mounted in an external case. I know the hard drive is fine, yet I cannot get it to read on my PC... The jumpers are correct, the cables are rightly connected, it is spinning smoothly, and by all rights should be working! I have moved the jumper around to all the settings, tried turning it off and on, just about everything! The hard drive is good and to me it does not make any sense that it would not be working. It does not even show up in the disk manager! I am running Windows 7, yet Microsoft has no reports of this being a bug, should I try closing the 1394 port? will that help? Has anyone had this problem before?

    If it's an external drive you don't need jumper settings to be altered at all.

    An external drive is just plug an play ! :rolleyes:

    4 years ago! yes! FOUR YEARS AGO I took a hard drive out of my broken computer, mounted it in a belkin hard disk drive case and am still using it today! Plugs into any computer via the usb port and just works.

    No jumper settings required to be changed on the MB (mbo) (motherboard) at all....... it just works.

    Motherboard settings and jumpers only need to be changed for INTERNAL COMPUTER ADD ONS not EXTERNAL ONES!

    Ribbon cables are for internals and usb connections are for externals.

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    • Profile picture of the author localbandpost
      I know the jumper settings are fine, I just though... Well ya know how sometimes you have a problem, and you do something that you know for certain wont fix it, but it winds up fixing it anyway.... It happens to me a lot, so I tried it... FAIL!!! I know the hard disk is good b/c I can put it into any other PC and it works as an internal. I can use a diff hard disc with my enclosure and it works fine, so the enclosure is good:confused::confused::confused:. I checked compatibility..... TOTALLY SUPPOSED TO WORK!!! But what were you saying about that firmware?
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  • Profile picture of the author DussaultPR
    Sound like it could be the IDE cable since it worked in other boxes. Try using a different IDE cable and if that doesn't work it could be the motherboard is failing for that channel.

    Good luck
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  • Profile picture of the author KimW
    I'm confused, I thought you posted you tried it in other machines and it didn't work.
    But if it works in other machines then the others are right.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    FORGET the IDE cable! That is NOT the problem! If the drive works in the computers, as internal, then the JUMPERS should not be the problem! FORGET the driver! Forget the firmware, etc... Probably NOT the problem!

    NOW, as to what it could be! Is the EXTERNAL ENCLOSURE AT LEAST ATA-5 compatible? Can it handle 5v and 12 v with AT LEAST 6A? I don't know how common that is now, but if the answer to any of those questions is NO, FORGET IT! BTW I am talking about the ENCLOSURE! I don't know if the interface can supply that much power, and wouldn't trust it to do so, so I hope it is externally powered.

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author localbandpost
      Ok, let me set this straight. It is an older HD, (CHECK THE MODEL#) so yes it is compatible with the enclosure. I have tried about five diff IDE cables, also, I tried it as an external HD on the other machines(being as that is the purpose I am going to use it for) and it failed miserably. I got curious since I had just taken it out of a machine so I not only put it back in on that machine as an internal, but I also tried it as an internal on a Vista machine and it works internally. The problem is my board only supports two drives, I already have two. This HD will be used for my website graphics and other design items that I dont want to keep on an FTP. I constantly modify and work on these items so I need them on my pc. So far I have tried in advance every option available in this thread except for one... Upgrading the firmware, and that is because I simply do not know how, nor where to get the upgraded firmware. I hope that clears everything up. Sorry I have been sorta vague. Thanks for all the help so far though, it is nice to have people who are willing to help.
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      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by localbandpost View Post

        Ok, let me set this straight. It is an older HD, (CHECK THE MODEL#) so yes it is compatible with the enclosure. I have tried about five diff IDE cables, also, I tried it as an external HD on the other machines(being as that is the purpose I am going to use it for) and it failed miserably. I got curious since I had just taken it out of a machine so I not only put it back in on that machine as an internal, but I also tried it as an internal on a Vista machine and it works internally. The problem is my board only supports two drives, I already have two. This HD will be used for my website graphics and other design items that I dont want to keep on an FTP. I constantly modify and work on these items so I need them on my pc. So far I have tried in advance every option available in this thread except for one... Upgrading the firmware, and that is because I simply do not know how, nor where to get the upgraded firmware. I hope that clears everything up. Sorry I have been sorta vague. Thanks for all the help so far though, it is nice to have people who are willing to help.
        I DID check the model number! So let me set YOU straight:

        http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/HDD...ec-e-70330.pdf

        Age means NOTHING! Will your enclosure work with a SCSI drive? Will it work with MFM? RLL? NOPE! So age means LITTLE! In fact, some newer things FAIL to be backward compatible.

        ALSO, older drives tend to take MORE wattage(One newer drive I checked could work with less than 4 watts), so a newer interface may NOT be built to handle them. ALSO, the transformer could be bad!

        I told you the other things you tried wouldn't work. That was a GIVEN!

        Maybe you should tell us the model number of one of the drives that DID work, and what interface you are using. Do you EVEN know if the disk powers up IN THE EXTERNAL ENCLOSURE? Can you hear the heads move? How long does it run? Drives generally require a power surge to build inertia and handle the kickback, then things settle down, and they require more power to move the heads and even more power to actually do something. THAT is why I added extra power to what the spec specified, but I didn't add very much. And I HAVE seen transformers fail so that they could handle one drive but not another, etc... Some companies have EVEN had recalls because of it.

        Anyway, a power problem may cause the disk to fail to start, fail to reach speed, stop, or make the heads unable to move, etc.... SOMETIMES you can tell that by the sound.

        Steve
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        • Profile picture of the author Mike Wright
          The standard pair of IDE connectors on most motherboards support
          4 ide devices ...unless proprietary bioses dictate otherwise, or the
          relevant channels/ports are not enabbled in the bios settings.

          Why not just get an internal IDE expansion card to fit in one of the
          PCI slots and use that with the extra drive(s). About $5 as few are
          used anymore.

          Failing that, google for info on Windows not detecting drives.
          Other than that ...what Steve aka seasoned says
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