Important drive not compatible with Win 7 or 10

[strula]

So I have this older drive that has all the older videos and pics like my kids' birth, when they where small, etc...I plug it in to look at some vids and it's not working. Upon investigation I realize it's only compatible with Win 2000/XP/Vista. Well...I aint got any of those systems anymore. Is my only option to find a computer with that OS (if they even exist anymore???) I definitely don't want to lose any of that stuff on there. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

what drive is it?

 

Does it show up at all?

 

What file system?

[strula]

WD My Book Premium Edition. 500GB

 

No it doesn't show up at all. Not sure what the file system is.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, strula said:

WD My Book Premium Edition. 500GB

 

No it doesn't show up at all. Not sure what the file system is.

If it doesn't show up at all, its probably a dead drive, not a os compabability issue. That drive should work fine on win10. If you want the data you probably have to pay for a data recovery service. Your probably thinking about 300+ usd to get the data.

[strula]

Well the manual says it's only compatible with those OS. And the blue light in the front comes on like it's still alive. You think it just died sitting there disconnected? Last time I connected it (god knows how long ago and which computer it was) it worked fine. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, strula said:

Well the manual says it's only compatible with those OS. And the blue light in the front comes on like it's still alive. You think it just died sitting there disconnected? Last time I connected it (god knows how long ago and which computer it was) it worked fine. 

do you hear the drive spin up?

 

Drives can die when sitting there, things just wear out over time.

 

The os compatability doesn't matter, thats probably just the latest os that was out when it was made, it uses standard usb protocols to communicate.

[191x7]

Maybe you just need to assign a drive letter to the partitions on the drive?

[Senzelian]

Your drive isn't necessarily dead.

As mentioned before, your drive should work on any Windows operating system. The only reason it says it's only compatible with XP and Vista is, because at that time Windows 7, 8 and 10 didn't exist yet.

 

We need to know what exactly happens when it's plugged in.
Do you hear it spinning? When connected you should hear a very distincitve humming sound.

[Senzelian]

oops, double post. :s

[strula]

Ok so now the blue light on the front button won't even come on when I connect it. I've done absolutely nothing to it since I posted this and like I said in original post I've done nothing to it since last time it worked. It just said the unconnected and unplugged. 

 

When I plug it in now I just hear this rhythmic clicking sound. No humming, no spinning.

[demonix00]

Ether the drive has ceased up over time or there has been some kind of failure in the hardware that connects to the hard drive in the unit and isn't supplying enough power for it to start up.

 

If it is just an issue with the drive not getting enough power then it can be fixed by just removing the drive from the enclosure (which might require some tools or brute force to crack open the case to get at the hard drive) and plugging it in to an adapter (considering the drives "supported" operating system list it's likely to be an IDE drive, but regardless if you don't have one, you'll have to buy a USB adapter or a what is commonly called a hard drive toaster (because the way the hard drives are connected to the unit makes it look like a toaster) with the supported interface to get it going) but if you don't want to risk damaging the drive (or if the drive has ceased up) you should seek out a data recovery company who would be able to help recover the data from the drive (although this isn't going to be cheap).