All my Usb HDD no longer recognised

[i_amia]

Hi

i have several portable 2.5"HDD which have always worked but recently when plugged in the computer says that the USB device is not recognised.

I am running vista basic.

the drives were orignially formatted on XP but have worked with vista

i have over 5 years of travel photos on these drives and another with my whole music collection and would be devestated to lose this.

can any one help me get these drives recognised the power works ok as the lights come on and you can hear them whirling about.

please help me
amia

[NooNoo]

Welcome to Windrivers i amia

If you have several of these drives, are you using the same cable to connect them?

Have you tried the drives on another machine?

Finally ALL drives will die. You should always keep a backup.... a backup is a second copy of the files, not the ONLY copy.

[i_amia]

I use the same cable or a different cable it doesnt matter

different computers

these drives were my back up as i'd just bought a new laptop hence the change to vista from xp

it says there are no drivers for this device?

[NooNoo]

So I am trying to understand here... how many drives do you have? Have they ALL failed at the same time? Are they bare drives or are you using a caddy, or are they sealed in their own caddies?

Vista says there are no drivers? What make and model of PC?

[i_amia]

ok i have 3 portable hdd all 2.5 "

2 are in viao slim cases and the 3 in another brand

all have become not recognisable at the same time on 2 different computers 1 an dell inspiron 6400 running xp the other a failry new acer aspire 7520 with vista.

all have worked on both before.

i have several different double usb ended cables and none work

i have another hdd 2.5" in a seiral casing which workes fine. on both computers.

would getting a cable ( like the ones that attach hdd in desktop pc's work) i just want the data on them retireived.

thanks

[NooNoo]

First thing to do is take the ones that don't work to a friend and try your drives on an xp or vista machine that they not been plugged into before

If they still fail, it might be that the drives have failed.

Laptop drives take much less power than desktop drives, so they don't normally need extra power.