Be Excellent To Each Other

Hi all,

I only come when I want something.

My external hard drive has suddenly stopped spinning up, and won't register as existing when plugged into a PC USB port. When it's plugged in the power light's on, but I suspect that's just because the first PCB in the external drive (the one with the connectors) is linked to the "on" light. Some light reading suggests it might be a component on the main PCB.

What can I do? Can I take the hard drive bit out and install it in a desk top PC? Is it that simple, if it's just a problem with the PCB? I appreciate that if it's a problem with the drive itself then I'm well and truly fucked unless I want to shell out 500 quid for some probably-scammy-data-recovery-expert.

Also, I'm fully aware that referring to it as a backup drive is completely stupid given that it can't be a backup when it contains the only copies...

It'll have a normal drive inside, yep. if both the drive and pc are under about five years old they'll be sata too and easy to hook together.

Hopefully its the usb-sata controller that's gone and not the drive controller.