USB HD problem

I have a 200GB Maxtor USb HD. It is not the One Touch backup. It was working fine up until a couple of days ago. Now when I plug it into my PC, Windows says that it is an unknown device and I cant access it. Anyone know what I can do to fix this? I have a feeling the tech support people will only tell me to reformat the the drive which i dont want to do b/c i have a lot of important files on there.

All help is appreciated

 

well you could try taking the hard drive out of its casing as it will just be a normal internal hard drive on the inside.

Just take it out and stick it in your PC as the slave drive

if the pc picks it up and you can access the files then the hard drive itself is fine and the problem is with the circuit board in the casing

however this will definately void any warranties you may have on the hd

hope this helps

 

dont take out of case.try and see if your usb device is working....go into control panel click on add hardware and see if you can find it there.....install it and there you go...hope that works for you....like you said it was there before and now its not....peace

 

Ok thanks for the help guys. Ill try this tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

 

ok so now the damn thing is being recognized. let me see how long this lasts.

Thanks for the help

 

awesome bro maybe it needed a little restart....or a good swift kick in the you know where right mate?.....have a happy holiday,im glad you didnt take it apart that wouldnt have been good at all....peace