Cases from newegg.com.
Ladies and Gents,
I have a ACOMData 160GB External Hard Drive (model #HD160U2FE-72). I have owned it for 2+ years (worked well during this time). My computer is a Dell XPS M170 laptop. Today the external hard drive stopped showing up under "my computer." It does not appear under "device manager" and I do not get the "connection icon" in the lower right tray. Thus, I have no access to the drive. Power is connected to the drive and I can feel it vibrating (lights work well). I have changed out USB cords and had not luck at getting access to the data. I plugged the drive into 3 other computers and I am still unable to get access to the drive. I have important data on the drive, however, my pockets are not bottomless, so I rather not send it to a drive recovery business to get the data.
Any suggestions? I have been reading about removing the drive from the external case housing and placing it in a "hard drive enclosure" and later connecting it to a desktop in order to get access to the data. This solution seems promising, but I have little technical training in such matters. Where do I get such a piece of gear? Costs? Is it worth a try? Do you think based on my description of the problem that my data is lost for good? If not, what do you all recommend to get it back? I am willing to try anything that won't make me go broke and still gets the data off of the drive. My only goal is to get the data. I can toss the drive out when I am done and place the data on a more reliable drive. Please let me know what you think I should do.
Thanks,
Alex

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