[Help]SimpleTech Pininfarina 500GB External Drive

I had just bought this external hard drive about 2 months ago. I believe i have moved it from one computer to another before. Everything worked fine until the last time i unplugged it. Now, when i go to plug back in the external hard drive. My computer detects it as an unknown device and asks me if i have the CD to install it. Here is the thing. Its not suppose to ask for a installation CD cause it is suppose to install on its own. I have a Windows Xp Sp2 Desktop, and 6 other more that belongs to my brothers and sisters that i have tried to use it on. But it is the same problem on all of their computers as well. I tried to google the problem. On other websites it seems like other people have the same problem as me. Tried to see if there was a solution. But the best i heard was to uninstall the device from device manager, and start back up the computer and let windows install the device again. I tried that and it didnt work either. Perhaps if someone knows how to access the external hard drive at least, then perhaps there is a way to reformat the drive and somewhat like "Start over". Its been 2 weeks, and i am still searching for a solution. Please help me.

 

Faulty enclosure. Drive is probably fine but enclosure is fried.

 

Can you tell me what that means? and is there anything i can do to fix it?

 

try plugging it into your computer internally and see if it works. if it does obviously the enclosure has gone, and you could probaby get a new one fairly cheaply

if it doesnt work, then unfortunately the drive has gone

 

what do you mean, try plugging it internally? how do i do that, if it is a external hard drive?

 

He means that the enclosure (case) surrounding your hard drive has most likely gone bad, not the hard drive itself. You can remove the hard drive from the enclosure and install it internally, or install it in another hard drive enclosure. But if you just purchased the hard drive two months ago, it should still be covered under the manufactures warranty. If you do not need the information on the drive i would contact the manufacturer for a replacement. But if you need the information i would open up the drive.

 

SimpleTech will replace the drive if it is bad, but you will not get any of the information off of it. You can open the case and install the hardrive in your computer, but that will void the SimpleTech Warranty. If you decide to open it and the drive is bad SimpleTech will not replace it. However in my SimpleTech drive there was a Seagate harddrive that died. I called Seagate and the drive was under warranty so they are replacing it for me.