I have had a acomdata pureDrive Model 761 external drive for sometime and it's been wonderful. About two days ago it fell on it's side and I didn't think much of it. In fact, I've used a game that I can only use when it's plugged in and working; and in fact, just last night I checked to make sure I had access to all of the files I have stored on it, and last night it was working no problem. Then later in the night I didn't seem to have access. I thought it just might be hot so I shut everything down and tried it again today. My laptop recognizes it with the same sound when I turn it on; and lists it as a mass USB storage device when I choose the 'safely remove' option on my windows task bar. However, it's not listed as a drive when I browse to get access, or on my computer -like it normally is? Then when I took a closer look, I noticed that the back black panel is loose and I can slide it out if I wanted to? It didn't fall that hard, and like I said it's been working since that happened? Do you have any suggestions? I've never had a problem with it so far...please respond, thank you..

SOURCE: External Hard Drive won't respond

ok 1. you need to be sure that you can`t have acces anymore by usb to the external HD... try in another machine example a other laptop.. or you need to open the HD and connect to other way with a new conector that sell in comusa or other computer store... pls click that my solution was usefull

SOURCE: everytime i turn the power

One thing to note even when using a external drive to store/backup your data it is always good to burn your most important data to a DVD/CD to keep a hard copy for times like this, you can burn the DVD as a live DVD so you can rewrite over files with the same DVD or you can just Burn a new DVD each time as DVD's are very cheap these days.

If you have it fixed please let know and tell your solution or your problem for future users, please & thank you

How old is the drive? How long have you been using it? Have you dropped it or even tipped it over running/turned on or not?
It could be lots of things, Have you tried to reboot your computer unplug the external USB drive then replug it in another USB Port once windows is loaded? You can plug it in while the drive is turned on to see if that works at all. It could also be your Mass storage driver, OS uninstall that in device manager and then reinstall it by plugging in the drive. Do you have another computer home, work or friend that you could take the drive to and plug it in to test and see if it works there.

If it does its probably your machine if not its the probably the drive. If its your computer you may need to re-install the mass storage device driver or just change the usb port your using.

I do not know what Operation System you are using so I can only throw out some ideas to try.

If it is under warranty you can take it back to the store see if you can get a exchange if not, try a RMA with the manufacture you will lose all your data if you have to do this. So below are some instructions if you know basics to do, please use caution)

The hard drive itself may be corrupt, burned or bugged out or it could be the actual enclosure I have seen this lots of times. If it is still under warranty and make sure it will not void the warranty to open the enclosure most have pieces of tape stickers over parts so they know if it was opened it will be wripped, open it up and make sure all your plugs/wires are plugged in nice and tight, or look for any sign of wires being exposed or broken, if there are any wires.

When the drive is turned on can you hear and funny noises coming from it? Was the drive tipped over or dropped any distance?

Last resort if you tried everything else and may think its upir hard drive.

Next area is for anybody who may be having this problem with any external drive and has basic knowledge of hooking up a hard drive very simple for some.

Please read through it first or print it out then look up anything you do not understand on Google before starting.

This part is getting into testing and trouble shooting the actual hard Drive that was in your enclosure drive, the fastest and easiest way if you know the basics of what to do I will give instructions.
Unplug the computer and wait a few mins for power to drain from the motherboard. Make sure you always ground your self by touching the steal part of the case and try not to touch any parts, but if you are touching a steel part of the case you should be grounded and static electricity should not hurt anything, very rare but can happen you have been warned... lol

If you have the knowledge take the hard drive out of the external enclosure (usually a couple screws) and hook it up directly inside your computer via a SATA cable or if you know somebody that does and will do it for free? If not skip this part...

If you do not have any extra cables you can even just unplug the computers main Hard Drive SATA cable and power wire and plug it into this drive no need to take anything out of the case, or screw the drive in the case just set it beside the case with the side panel off.(when your done you can just plug it back into your main hard drive you pulled the wires from in the first place.)
Once you have the drive plugged in you can plug the computer back in and turn it on. Press the button to go into the bios and look and see if the hard drive shows up in the bios or you can watch the bootup screen and see if you see the drive show up. If the drive shows up you just unplug it plug your main computers hard drive in with the wires you were using from it, boot up the machine to windows or your OS (This can be done before you even put the drive in the first time to skip some steps plus this CD is always good to have anyway.) then open your web browser and go to www.google.com and search for a Linux live cd. Download it & burn it then, put the CD/DVD in the cdrom drive and boot your machine when it asks hit any key to boot from CD do so and it will boot into Linux live to make sure you did it right it is very simple you are just burning a image to a cd most CD burning programs can do this easily if you do not have one a program called "ImgBurn" is free and easy to use you can download it just put name in google and search downloa and install, great for burning any image files or files in general to CD or DVD.
Complete the first steps above to put the other hard drive(one you are testing) back in the computer, boot up into the linux live cd you burned and once in check and see if you can access the drive.(to boot into the Linux live CD you may need to go into your Bios when the computer first starts and change the boot order so the CD-Rom boots first so CD-Rom then Hard drive and put floppy disk last as they are pretty useless in today world where cd's & Jumpdrives can be used for everything.

OR another way Below

Hookup the drive directly to your computer using a SATA wire, plug in the power cord, (that is if your computer is not old enough that the power supply does not have any SATA power connectors if not you will have to buy a 4 prong to Sata power cable),( very cheap on eBay or a Computer store around your house.)
Keep in mind the actual brand of the Hardrive inside the enclosure because it will not be a "Acomdata" as that is only the company brand name that made the enclosure and put it all together very simple task.

Turn on the computer and watch if it shows up in the list of drives(could be a good sign) or you can go into the bios and take a look at the list of drives connected to the computer and see if it is in the list.

After the computer boots up take a look in "My Computer" for the drive, if it shows up click on it to see if you can access it, if not (This part on is for Windows Vista or WIndows 7 users if not go to end and read end part)
then go into "Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools" then double click computer management, when it opens on the left side click on storage then disk Management.

Find the drive in your list depending on how many hard drives you have most will only have one, unless you added others.

Now find the drive you just installed, usually you can find it easiest by either its brand name or the drives size. Look in my Computer at drive C and how big it is and compare with the drives in the list, or you can look at the drives, drive letters like C: D: E: and so on. C: should be your main hard drive, D: is usually your DVD/CD rom...

Under health look and see what the smart is saying about the drive, it should say healthy if the drive is good. Click on the drive in that Windows and initialize it if needed (initialize does not mean "Mark Partition as active" when you right click on that drive)

Now if the drive does not show up at all or will not work or is not in a healthy state in the computer managment area we were just in the Drive is probably bad and should/needs to be replaced or its gonna fail soon, if everything works while it is connected directly to the computer it is the enclosure or your computers mass storage driver as explained above.

SOURCE: Will an Acomdata external hard drive (Model # HD25OUHES5-72, Serial # C1005093) work with Windows 7

Windows 7 is a pain with large external hard drives you might get messages saying the hard drive needs to be checked or formatted do you want to check the disk now or do you want to format it now.

When there is nothing wrong with it at all.

External hard drives can be used on most computers and operating systems with minimal or no requirements other than leads and drivers.

Try it and good luck.

Hope this helps