Peripherals forum: HP Personal Media Drive not recognized

Bob,

Yes, it is about 4 years old and out of warranty...seems a crying shame since I never got to back up anything on it. I spent alot of money for nothing. I will take it into Best Buy Geek squad and if they do mechnical tests on it and find it is truly damaged I will just buy another external hard drive this time an SSD IF they sell SSD external hard drives with large capacity...in the meantime, I have to find a way to unload large sections of my SSD C: drive It is now down to 6.82 GB free of a 119 GB capacity....

I do wonder if my Windows 7 32 bit operating system is to blame for any of this..????

And 4 years is a very long time for an external. Sounds like it did well.

By the way, if it's like all other externals it's a drive in a case and a cable. THREE PARTS. You can replace the part that failed. For me I carry a cable in my recovery kit that I can test the drive with. Here it is.
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=2020

I do that so often I don't give it much thought.

Why would you consider SSD for an external? Sounds pricey and for now, still don't trust that media.
Bob

Bob,

I was told the Solid state drives are much much harder to ruin than the standard drive.That is why I want one. for storage. I have ruined so many standard hard drives I got sick of them. So far the Solid states is doing very well...

Do you have a different opinion about them ??

If you use your old ext. HDs as in frequent in/out use of storage it may succumb to the same hassles of failure. If on the other hand, you simply store data it may work out OK. Also, if older HDs were handled wrongly or got roughed-up then that too is why older HD tend to fail. While SSD may provide use in that situation, look-up the "TRIM cmd." to see why SSD can fail. Also, the same proper handling and placement of ext. HD still apply. review all the horror stories and see why externals fail by the cat(pets), kids, falls, storms or long use even.

tada -----Willy

Don't take my word on it. Read from https://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&sclient=psy-ab&q=ssd+data+recovery+almost+impossible

So let's get this straight. You want a single device to store files on that does not fail.

I want that.
Bob

Yes.. I want a single device that stores files and will not fail.Are all these 3 Terrabyte Western Digital My Book Essential USB 3.0/2.0 External Hard drives that Best Buy sells... my only practical choice ?


Thanks for your input....

If the message is not getting across, let me know. I rarely cross the threshold at best buy. I go there to "showroom." If you don't know what that is, read http://radar.oreilly.com/2013/02/google-best-buy-showrooming-amazon-study-square-register.html

You did get many years out of the first drive and it appears you don't want to see if the HDD, case or cable failed. That's OK but I have found too many good drives inside a broke case.
Bob

Bob,

I will check these things trust me I will.
Thanks for all your help.. I will close this topic now...