HDD120 not being seen by USB

[sloopman]

Can anyone help me, I have a Philips HDD120 that started to show the ! over the image of the unit suggesting the drive had problems, but plug in the USB lead and the HDD suggested that it was connected to the compluter even though neither the computer or the DMM software could see it.

Tried Philips but as you would guess not very helpful - its broken, we cant do any thing

Have fully checked out the drive, dismantled the hdd, removed the drive and connected it to the PC with one of those adaptors, some files were corupt but I had full access to all the drive, ran various drive check programs all ok.
rebuilt unit but still same problem.
Tried running some USB monitoring software this shows no activity when the Hdd120 is conected

My thoughts are either the USB has failed or the firmware is corrupt - but how can I get new firmware onto the unit - could I get a basic op system on the drive by putting it in the PC?

Any suggestions greatly welcome?

[ECA]

1. try a REFORMAT in FAT32...It that dont work, format in FAT...

[sloopman]

I have already tried reformatting using partition magic, I hve seen things suggesting that the ordinary format that comes with XP is not brilliant. What do you suggest I use?

[ECA]

Goto my computer...
RIGHT click the device, and find FORMAT, select FAT, FAT32..one should work.

[calique88]

I have the exact same problem, and unfortunately I'm completely illiterate about formatting with FAT32 and so on. The main reason for my post Sloopman is that you've mention something that may help.

You'd said that in the process of "saving" this unit you've used an adaptor to connect the internal drive to a PC. I have two(2) questions for you:

1.If you use this adaptor can you transfer files from the HDD using say explorer or herbert?

2.Do you have the adaptor reference, where to buy it and cost? (OK that's 3 questions in 1).

Thanks for any advice. I'm not interested in using this unit anymore but I do want to save all my music. I've had it since 2004, and it used to work great but is showing its age.

[sloopman]

Start in reverse order.

The adaptors are available from various places with a wide range of prices, I used a search on ebay 1.8 to 3.5 IDE . Price I paid 98p +£1.79 postage - took about a week to arrive - most of the suppliers require payment through paypal.
It looks like this
.http://ebay.ezd24.com/epweb/topweb/tpro/tb2741ow.jpg

When conected to the PC it is just like one of the hard disks I was able to play the mp3 files, copy them to the other drives etc

I had to open box and connect in place of a second hard drive or CD drive, also had some problems because it wants to be the master drive on that particular IDE cable and my box is complicated with 3 hard drives and one DVD writer

It is possible to put the drive on the pins the wrong way, there is no key or pin 1 indicator - just turn it round

[calique88]

Thank you for your advice and very helpful information.