Dead Maxtor Firwire Remote HD

[Ray]

My Maxtor Fire Wire external HD has died. If the unit sets overnight
it will show itself present in Explorer. I can access the first level
of folders. If I try to drill down lower than the first level the
drive letter (F) vanishes from the drive queue. After this, the drive
queue jumps from E to G with no mention of F. I assume all data on the
disk is inaccessible now. Can someone make me happy by telling me that
I am wrong and the data is recoverable? BTW I plugged this (FAT32)
drive into my XP (NTFS) system and the symptoms were the same.

Ray

 

[Jan Alter]

Run a diagnostics program from Maxtor on this drive if possible. I would go
to the Maxtor website and see what is available. The programs I have used
from them were creating a floppy boot disk that could check thier ATA drive.
Yours is obviously firewire so it might be a different utility.

 

[kony]

My Maxtor Fire Wire external HD has died. If the unit sets overnight
it will show itself present in Explorer. I can access the first level
of folders. If I try to drill down lower than the first level the
drive letter (F) vanishes from the drive queue. After this, the drive
queue jumps from E to G with no mention of F. I assume all data on the
disk is inaccessible now. Can someone make me happy by telling me that
I am wrong and the data is recoverable? BTW I plugged this (FAT32)
drive into my XP (NTFS) system and the symptoms were the same.

Ray

Because it seems to improve when cold, you might try the old
freezer trick... seal it in an airtight plastic bag and put
in the freezer for a couple hours. Have the system ready to
copy off the data, THEN take it out of the freezer and copy
off anything you can, immediately.

Afterwards, run the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics and if
it's under warranty still, see if you can get an RMA from
Maxtor.