I had what finally turned out to be a terminal problem with my old Laptop. During a short series of visits to a repairer when he temporarily sorted my problem, because the original hard drive was getting near to capacity he installed a new 120 GB hard drive (WD1200BEVE) for me, onto which various bit of software were installed. The old, nearly full hard drive he fitted into a metal case. The repair seemed okay and the machine worked fine with the new Hard drive. If I needed anything filed on the old drive I could, and still can access it via the USB port on my Laptop. Then, after a few weeks, the old problem re-occurred. I decided not to throw any more money at it and sent the old laptop to the tip.
Before doing so, I recovered the new “Hard drive” from the unit. I purchased a second smart “metal case kit” for it, intending to use it as external storage. I was able to access it using the cable connectors provided with the metal case kit. After a while I realised that I did not need the software on this “new” hard drive and one day when it was connected to my new laptop, in my innocence, I gave the dreaded instruction “format”. This cleared the hard drive completely. Great, I thought, I can now continue to use it as a portable drive, I can work on it, and carry it in my pocket, how useful, there is no need to carry my laptop about, I can simply plug it into any handy computer and work just as though I was in my own office. That was what I thought!
Alas it was not to be, my computer does not recognise it now. It does no even acknowledge that there is a disc plugged into the USB port using the same cable as before, I can access the original hard drive, no problem. When this “new” hard drive is plugged in, the LED on the end is illuminated and I can hear the disc whirring away but without any result.
Question: Have I destroyed it? - or do I need to somehow install a form of “driver” to the disc to use in the manner I have tried to describe? - or is it a forlorn and useless hope?
