I have a Lacie 250 Gig external hard drive. It is about half full of misc. including most all of my pictures & videos.
Suddenly & without provocation it does not show up on 'My Computer' window.
I have re booted several times & the HD power lite (RED) comes on & then, during the boot process, it flashes green/red as if it were indexing the drive. When the boot is complete and the power lite on the HD stops flashing there is no further indication that the computer knows of the HD's existence. Is there a way I can suck the data from this HD?

Doug Olinger, July 2013

I have the same brand and capacity.

Please follow this check list:

Inspect the wall to power supply power cable for any deffect. This cable is removeable. It may be replaced with any cable whose connector fit into the power supply.

Make sure it's power supply is properly connected to an electric outlet. The green led should be lit.

Carefully inspect the cable from the power supply to the drive for any defect.

Make sure that the drive is connected to the power supply.

Make sure that the drive is turned ON. The amber led on the front should be ON.

Inspect the USB cable for any defect. Replace if needed.

Double check that the USB cable is properly connected to both the computer abd the drive.

The USB port or controler of the computer may be faulty.
Try the drive with another computer.
Try some other USB device with your computer.

If the drive works with aniother computer AND some other device DON'T work when connected to your computer, it indicate that the computer's USB port is deffective, or maybe disabled.

Electro, July 2013

Re: lacy 250 gig hard drive.
Thanks for the prompt reply.
The drive is not listed in the device manager.
I don't have the faintest idea what could be wrong or, obviously, how to fix it.

Doug Olinger, July 2013

It's highly possible that the drive have been accidently disabled.
When a drive, or any device, is disabled, it as if it was not even connected at all axcept that it appears in the devices manager.

From the controll pannel, start the "System" applet.
Sellect the devices management.
Any disabled device or any having any problem will show with a triangular yellow icon or octogonal red icon.
Find your external drive and double click on it. This brings it's properties.

If it have been deactivated, the button just above "Uninstall" should read "Activate".
Click that button.
Click OK.

You also may connect it to any other computer. That computer could be another PC running Windows, a Linux box or a Mac.
A disabled drive is disabled only on the computer from whitch it have been disabled. Any other computer can't "know" it have been disabled.


If there are any problem with the files or files system, Windows should propose you to analyse the drive to find and attempt to repair any problems.
You can also use any third party file recovery application.There are many available, several been free.
Whatever solution you chose, the recuperation process can take several hours.

Electro, July 2013