dipsylalapo Supervisor Posted February 24, 2020 Supervisor Share Posted February 24, 2020 Just looking for some help in determining (or confirming) that my portable hard drive is dead. I have a Samsung M3 External Drive (link), the 2TB version, attached to my Xbox One S. I've had it about 4 and half years. Yesterday when I switched my Xbox on, I noticed that the drive wasn't being picked up. I've tried attaching it to a desktop machine, where the drive appears for a few seconds before disappearing. I have a feeling the drive is dead, but just wanted to check to see if there was anything I could do to confirm this. I've checked/done the following (in no particular order) Status light switches on when I plug the HDD in (both in an Xbox or PC). I can also hear the drive spinning I ordered a new cable last night, which I've just checked with no change When plugged into a PC, no sign under My Computer When plugged into a PC, I see the drive for a few seconds under Disk Management. It appears to be formatted. Any ideas what I could check next? My last resort is going to be tearing the drive apart and seeing if it works that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon H Supervisor Posted February 24, 2020 Supervisor Share Posted February 24, 2020 could be the sata-to-usb chip has died on the enclosure. you might be able to pull the drive out of the enclosure and xfer it to another enclosure or use a sata-to-usb adapter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted February 24, 2020 Moderator Share Posted February 24, 2020 2 minutes ago, Brandon H said: could be the sata-to-usb chip has died on the enclosure. you might be able to pull the drive out of the enclosure and xfer it to another enclosure or use a sata-to-usb adapter I agree. I had a controller on my WD MyBook go bad. However I had a pair of them. Switched controllers, golden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsylalapo Supervisor Posted February 24, 2020 Author Supervisor Share Posted February 24, 2020 14 minutes ago, Brandon H said: could be the sata-to-usb chip has died on the enclosure. you might be able to pull the drive out of the enclosure and xfer it to another enclosure or use a sata-to-usb adapter If the SATA to USB has died, would that still be able to power the drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon H Supervisor Posted February 24, 2020 Supervisor Share Posted February 24, 2020 3 minutes ago, dipsylalapo said: If the SATA to USB has died, would that still be able to power the drive? yep. if the controller in the current enclosure is on the way out it could explain why your computer can see it for a few seconds still formatted then the connection dies again. most of those Portable HDDs are just normal 2.5" hard drives in an enclosure with a Sata to USB controller chip. if the controller dies you can usually pull the drive and either replace the enclosure or just use a standard Sata to usb adapter just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnelsoninjax Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 I'm just going to add a word of caution: I had a Samsung External drive, and the external power failed, so I opened it up, placed the HDD onto my external dock, and the drive was blank, not formatted, but was when it was inside the enclosure. I do not know if it was designed to wipe the data, or if it was using a proprietary file system. Brandon H 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted February 24, 2020 Moderator Share Posted February 24, 2020 15 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said: I'm just going to add a word of caution: I had a Samsung External drive, and the external power failed, so I opened it up, placed the HDD onto my external dock, and the drive was blank, not formatted, but was when it was inside the enclosure. I do not know if it was designed to wipe the data, or if it was using a proprietary file system. Yeah, a lot of companies use encryption. This was the same with my WD MyBook. It's a pain, really. You can't take it out and expect to see everything on your computer. I origionally got my drive data back by doing something in GParted. I think it was repartitioning it without losing data. I don't remember as it was awhile ago. Brandon H 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsylalapo Supervisor Posted February 24, 2020 Author Supervisor Share Posted February 24, 2020 Ah not too worried about the data. It's just Xbox games, unmetered connection so I'll just download it again. Just the universes way of telling me to play some of the games 😉 I've ordered another enclosure, will update you all tomorrow jnelsoninjax and goretsky 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsylalapo Supervisor Posted February 25, 2020 Author Supervisor Share Posted February 25, 2020 Update So I had a look at a few videos on taking apaet the drive and it may be more complictated than popping out the drive. It looks to be soldered to controller. Damn you Samsung 😭 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted February 25, 2020 Moderator Share Posted February 25, 2020 You any good at de-soldering? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsylalapo Supervisor Posted February 25, 2020 Author Supervisor Share Posted February 25, 2020 7 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said: You any good at de-soldering? The drives dead, I guess it can't get any worse I once de-soldered (and then re-soldered) the battery for a GameBoy Colour game 😛 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted February 25, 2020 Global Moderator Share Posted February 25, 2020 6 hours ago, dipsylalapo said: Update So I had a look at a few videos on taking apaet the drive and it may be more complictated than popping out the drive. It looks to be soldered to controller. Damn you Samsung 😭 Yea, I was about to post yesterday if you've actually taken the enclosure apart. However, after looking at a few more videos I believe the weird looking connector is basically an adapter that can be pulled off the drive and it'll reveal the standard SATA power/data connections (no soldering required). Obviously, I do not have eyes on this product so can not say this with 100% certainty. Speaking of...why haven't you taken apart the case yet? I would have ... and just hooked the drive directly to my desktops motherboard for troubleshooting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsylalapo Supervisor Posted February 25, 2020 Author Supervisor Share Posted February 25, 2020 9 minutes ago, Jim K said: Yea, I was about to post yesterday if you've actually taken the enclosure apart. However, after looking at a few more videos I believe the weird looking connector is basically an adapter that can be pulled off the drive and it'll reveal the standard SATA power/data connections (no soldering required). Obviously, I do not have eyes on this product so can not say this with 100% certainty. Speaking of...why haven't you taken apart the case yet? I would have ... and just hooked the drive directly to my desktops motherboard for troubleshooting. We're in the process of moving, so a lot of my usual bits are in storage.....trust me, waiting a day is tough 😛 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dipsylalapo Supervisor Posted February 25, 2020 Author Supervisor Share Posted February 25, 2020 Update #2 So took apart the drive and looks like the drive is connected to a PCB which had the USB output. I can't remove the PCB (again don't have the right tool) but I can't see a way to stick this drive into another enclosure 😢 http://imgur.com/a/r9YEFry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted February 25, 2020 Moderator Share Posted February 25, 2020 3 minutes ago, dipsylalapo said: Update #2 So took apart the drive and looks like the drive is connected to a PCB which had the USB output. I can't remove the PCB (again don't have the right tool) but I can't see a way to stick this drive into another enclosure 😢 It has to be the same controller to read it. Well, all external drives use a controller card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted February 25, 2020 Global Moderator Share Posted February 25, 2020 Yea, you're toast. You can't cancel the order for the enclosure you ordered can you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Supervisor Posted February 26, 2020 Supervisor Share Posted February 26, 2020 Hello, Have you checked to see if there is any actual damage to the USB connector on the board? It could be a trace with cracked solder, mechanical damage to the connector, and so forth. While not as trivial as a case swap, it may still be possible to repair if you are comfortable with soldering connectors. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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