i/o magic 250 GB

[Deodiaus]

I have a external USB I/O Magic 250 GB HD which is not working. It
will not even power on or make a whiling HD sound. does anyone know
of some sites which might know how to repair it, or replace the
external hardware to see if I can't salvage anything from it?

 

[philo]

I have a external USB I/O Magic 250 GB HD which is not working. It
will not even power on or make a whiling HD sound. does anyone know
of some sites which might know how to repair it, or replace the
external hardware to see if I can't salvage anything from it?

Though the drive might be dead...
it's possible it's only the controller

remover the drive from the enclosure and install it internally to see if the
drive is still good or not

 

[Bryce]

I have a external USB I/O Magic 250 GB HD which is not
working. It
will not even power on or make a whiling HD sound. does
anyone know of some sites which might know how to repair
it, or replace the external hardware to see if I can't
salvage anything from it?

Start with the easy stuff.

* It could be a failing connector where power adapter cord
plugs into drive enclosure. Try wiggling it.

* It could be a failed power adapter. Do you have access to
another with the same voltage rating and the same or higher
current rating? Swap out the original.

* Is there a power off/on switch or button on the enclosure?
Might be broken; was it ever intermittant or temermental
before the failure? Does operating the switch/button
repeatedly result in even a brief indication of power-up?

No joy? Time to take the enclosure apart and temporarily
install the hard drive in your computer ... or buy one of
those usb to sata/pata adapters for a table-top test. If the
drive is OK, you can buy a new external drive enclosure to
finish the project.

 

[Paul]

I have a external USB I/O Magic 250 GB HD which is not working. It
will not even power on or make a whiling HD sound. does anyone know
of some sites which might know how to repair it, or replace the
external hardware to see if I can't salvage anything from it?

The iomagic gigabank appears to be a 3.5" enclosure. And
the box likely included a wall adapter which powers the drive.

If the wall adapter is not working, that will prevent the drive
from spinning up. The wall adapter might be a 12V DC type, and
then inside the enclosure there is a separate 5V regulator to convert
the 12V into 5V the drive logic board can use.

Inside the enclosure, is either an IDE or a SATA 3.5" drive,
which you can install temporarily in a modern desktop computer
for data retrieval. If your computer lacks the cabling, you
can get disk controller cards, power adapter cables, and the like,
until the drive can be connected to the desktop.

I can't find any pictures of enclosure disassembly, so I don't know
how hard it is to take apart.

So depending on your skill set, you either need to test and
replace the adapter. Or if you don't know how to do that,
just remove the drive from the enclosure and use it inside
a desktop computer.

Paul