DIY – How to solve External HDD which cant be detected on PC
Recently I tried to connect a brand new Maxtor One Touch 4 Mini external hard disk to my PC.
- Maxtor One Touch 4 Mini External HDD
This is a slim-type external hard disk that does not come with an AC adaptor. Such slim and compat external hard disks (HDD) draw power from the PC’s USB ports, whereas the bulky external hard disks (perhaps due to its size or the fact that it uses a 3.5″ drive) are power hungier and need to draw its power directly from an AC source.
I have always thought that such devices are simply plug and play. Yes, it is plug and play if your PC can detect it, if your PC can’t detect it, then you are in for a troubleshooting witch hunt.
If your PC is like mine and cannot detect your external HDD (does not matter which brand it is), here are the tips to help you solve the problem. This post could prove to be much more useful than trying to connect product support – from my own experience. Before starting all the troubleshooting and solving, make sure that this same external HDD can work on another PC as well. If it does not, bring it back to the store to exchange for a new one.
1) Use the USB ports on the back of your PC. The back USB ports supposedly provide more power, due to the architectural design of the PC motherboard. If your external HDD’s USB cable comes with two USB cable head, plug both into USB ports. The reason for having this two headed USB cable is to allow for more power to be drawn from USB ports to power up the external HDD. If your HDD is able to work with just one USB port, then good for you.
2) Sometimes your external HDD may be lighted up but it still cannot be detected on your PC. Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disk Management. Scroll down the list to see if your HDD is listed as one of the disks connected to your PC (Tip : look out for the GB size or name of disk). If it is in the list and yet it cant be seen on ”MY COMPUTER”, then right click on the external HDD (still in the disk management window) and choose “Change drive letter”. Change the drive letter to another alphabet that is unlikely to be used, depending on the number of disks connected to your PC, it could be anywhere from E: to Z:. Usual PCs with one harddisk (C:) and one optical drive (D:) would have used up the alphabets A to D, so start from E onwards. It does not have to be consecutive, if your favourite alphabet is W, then choose W. Click OK once you are done and go to “MY COMPUTER” to look for the drive under the alphabet assigned. It should appear now.
- USB Hub with AC Adaptor Included
3) If it still does not appear on “MY COMPUTER” or you do not see your HDD under the Disk Management list, then you should go out and purchase a USB hub with a dedicated AC adaptor. Take note : some USB hubs do not come with any AC inlet at all – dont get those. Some with AC inlet may not come with an AC adaptor, try not to get those too. Best to get a USB hub which comes with an AC adaptor included in its package. It would not be very expensive, probably costs about $20-$40, depending on the brand. Once you have got your USB hub and hooked it up properly, plug in the USB plug from the external HDD USB cable that says “POWER & DATA” to a USB port at the back of your PC and the other “POWER ONLY” to one of the ports in this standalone USB hub. Your external HDD should be running and you have eliminated the problem of not enough power to boot up the external HDD. If your PC still cannot detect the drive, follow thru Step 2 and you should get it up and working.
Post a comment if it works for you or if it still does not work, I may be able to help.
S is for Slumdog Millionaire OST (Oscar winner)!
I have always enjoyed the beat of traditional Indian music. The percussion instruments used in Indian music complement modern electronic instruments very well, for eg. in a dance or chill out track.
This soundtrack won two Academy Awards – for best original music score and best original song for Track 13 – “Jai Ho”.
Tracklist
01.A.R. Rahman feat. M.I.A. – O Saya
02.A.R. Rahman – Riots
03 A.R. Rahman – Mausam And Escap
04 M.I.A. – Paper Planes
05 M.I.A. – Paper Planes (DFA Remix)
06 A.R. Rahman – Ringa Ringa
07 A.R. Rahman – Liquid Dance
08 A.R. Rahman – Latika’s Theme
09 Sonu Nigam – Aaj Ki Raat
10 A.R. Rahman – Millionaire
11 A.R. Rahman – Gangsta Blues
12 A.R. Rahman – Dreams On Fire
13 A.R. Rahman – Jai Ho
About A.R. Rahman
The “Mozart of Madras,” as the British Broadcasting Corp. refers to him, is celebrated in India: Rahman has composed the soundtracks for more than 50 Bollywood films. His fame has started to spread outside his homeland, thanks to the scores for Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical “Bombay Dreams” and a theater version of “The Lord of the Rings.”
Get it here or here. Preview only, buy original if you enjoyed the preview.
N is for NBA ‘07 on PS3, now USD12.90 only!
Playasia.com is currently offering the game NBA ‘07 for Playstation 3 at a fantastic price of USD12.90 inclusive of free shipping just for this week! (approximately S$20 only! So cheap, where to find?)
Click on picture to grab one copy for yourself!
Disclaimer : This should not be taken as an endorsement for the game-play quality of this game. This is purely a price endorsement only.
H is for Hellboy on PS3, now USD12.90 only!
Playasia.com is currently offering the game Hellboy for Playstation 3 at a fantastic price of USD12.90 inclusive of free shipping just for this week! (approximately S$20 only! So cheap, where to find?)
Click on picture to grab one copy for yourself!
Do note that this offer is limited by quantity and time. So hurry up if you want to grab one. Based on past experience, such great offer will be finished within a day or two, sometimes even hours!
Disclaimer : This should not be taken as an endorsement for the game-play quality of this game. This is purely a price endorsement only.
R is for Ronald Jenkees
Today I would like to recommend Ronald Jenkees’ music. This guy is a musical talent on the electronic keyboard.
Experience this musical talent for yourself on Youtube. He has a self-released album named Derty.
A music talent
Track list.
01) Derty
02) Neptune
03) Canon in D Remix
04) Clutter
05) Super Fun
06) The Rocky Theme – Remixed
07) Snap
08) The Sunfish Song
09) Loui
10) Gold Spinners
11) Remix to a Remix
12) Almost Undamaged
13) 56 Rap
14 Aint no Thang Rap
His second album was supposedly due last December but there is no mention of it yet at his website.
God is fair, thats all I have to say.
E is for Evernote
Once a while you stumble onto something new, something that
(1) you never knew you needed something like this before but
(2) somehow you think it will be useful in future and
(3) may even become reliant on it once you star to use it.
It happens to me all the time, especially when I am shopping at IKEA or Daiso. There are so many tiny gadgets to discover. Some are utterly useless to me, but once a while, I will find something that is so “why I didnt think of that?”. Then you study the item and you try to think of ways that it could be useful to you. There might be times when I couldnt think of any use for it at the moment, but because the item is so innovative, you end up buying it just so that you might find a need for it later on.
The same scenario happens when I am surfing online. There are so many software/websites available out there – some even free - for all kinds of use (or sometimes useless) that you may think it is useful but you dont have a need for it right now. All you want to do when you stumble upon it is to bookmark it so that you remember it when you need such a use for it in future.
Evernote is one such website. According to the website :-
Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.
Capture what you like, find it when you want
Stop forgetting things. Capture everything now so you will be able to find it all later.
Things to capture:
- Tasks and to-dos
- Notes and research
- Web pages
- Whiteboards
- Business cards
- Scribbles
- Snapshots
- Wine labels
And then find them all any time across all the computers and devices you use.
How does Evernote do it?
Three steps:
- You capture the things you want to remember using what you already use—your Windows or Mac computer, the web, and your mobile phone.
- We run everything through our recognition technology, and then synchronize it across your devices. You can then organize and tag the notes, if you wish.
- When you want to find something, just search or filter and there it is just like you remember it.
Doesn’t it sound useful? It seems to be an online pocket notebook for you to store all kind of information that you might need later on and allow you to text search for it easily because it can recognize letters even in images. I haven’t figured out if I’ll have a need for this but I have registered myself up for a free account anyway. Maybe I will use it to record down all the useful things that I’ve come across but have not found a need for it yet. In future, when I need a solution, I can look it up at Evernote to see if any of the information recorded can help to solve my need.
DIY tip : How to fix a leaking pipe
Ever faced a leaking pipe somewhere in your home? Not the gushing type (you need to call in the professionals) but the kind where the leak is slowly but surely and sometimes even so slowly that you cant see the drip but you can see a puddle of water accumulating below the leak.
For HDB residents, you can contact your town council for a list of approved plumbers who have some kind of arrangement with the town council to provide services to residents of the estate (under the purview of that particular town council) at reasonable or fixed rates depending on job scope. However, if you live in a private home / condo and dont know any trusted plumber, calling a plumber can leave you at the mercy of the plumber’s unreasonably high rates and leave you much poorer after the experience. The bad ones wont tell you over the phone how much it would cost but once they come to your house, they will quote you an exhorbitant rate that you either take up their offer or pay for their transport fee which could also be unreasonably high too.
For minor leaks, it is quite simple to repair. Feel the pipe for the wet spot if you cant see where the leak is coming from. In most cases, its probably the joint that leaks unless there is a hairline crack somewhere along the pipe (which, in this case, you need professional help to replace that portion of the pipe).
Go to the hardware shop and get this Selleys Knead It Aqua (or other similar product if it is not available).
The instructions for use is rather simple. Its like blu-tack. Cut off a portion roughly enough to go round the pipe circumference and knead it so that the inside ‘filling’ is mixed thoroughly with the external coating. Once this two compound are mixed, the resulting mixture will start to harden in a short while’s time, so you have to apply it around the leaking pipe joint before it hardens. Make sure you fill up and press in the compound properly and leave no gap so that when the compound hardens, it will help to stop the leak from that joint effectively. Imagine that you are trying to cement a broken joint. Make sure you go round the entire circumference of the pipe.
And after you washed your hands – the job’s done and you have saved enough for a good meal! How’s that for a job as easy as playing with play-doh? But don’t go quitting your day job in a hurry, there are a lot of other shitty jobs (pun intended) that a plumber have to do as well.
