I hate to say this, but that clicking you hear could be a sign of a failing or failed hard drive. Three suggestions: 1) have you tried rebooting the computer with the drive hooked up? 2) If it's connected by a USB cable, have you tried plugging it into another USB port? 3) Do you have another computer you can connect it to in order to see if it can be read that way?

Kudzu9 - Thanks for the reply. I could kick myself for not knowing that because I thought it was weird to make that noise. But it did it from the first day I bought it.

I am going to hook it up to my sons & see what happens. I already tried your other suggestions.

Now - before I have a complete breakdown - is there ANY way at all to get the hundreds of pictures out of there if is is shot?? Thanks, Debbie.

Yes, if the hard drive has not died. You can/should be able to remove the drive from the external enclosure. It should be a standard 3.5 inch hard drive. Then it is a simple matter to slave it on your own computer to copy off the data you need.

On your external drive, does it have a fan? Mine does and I wondered if it was possible a wire (or other foreign object) was being hit slightly by the fan blade causing the noise. Clutching at straws perhaps but best to explore all avenues before throwing the drive and you photos away.

Would you feel comfortable going inside the computer? You can do it and the job is quite easy.

Hi guys - I couldn't get to my sons yet but on a lark, I tried to open the extra drive another way. I used to attach it & then open "My Computer". I would click on Local Drive F (the extra hard drive). Then it would click and eventually open. Now I tried to open it through Windows Media Center and it opens every time with no clicking and all the pictures come up fine.

Does this mean that I have a computer problem & not an external hard drive problem ? But at least I can see the pics. The only thing is - I cannot copy them or edit them or anything except look at them in media center. I think.

Thanks for your help. Debbie.

I forgot to say that I don't know if the drive has a fan. It is a tiny thing about 10" long x 6" wide and about 1" high. I just put it in a USB port.

I would have no problems opening it with instructions. Debbie

Try hooking the drive up using a different USB port if you use the same one all of the time; some times it will find it again, and everything will be fine.

Once you find it, open my computer to look for the drive icon. What you need to do is make the my computer window smaller - then click the drive icon and drag it to your desktop. This will give you a new link for it and save you having to go to my computer all of the time.

I would back the drive up. I've had 2 externals go bad on me, I don't use them for staorage any more. If your computer will take another hard drive, consider getting one and running everything from there. The only time I use an external drive is to back up a computer I am working on. I don't trust them any more.

So what do you use for backup, Roselvr? I have two Maxtors, and the smaller seems to have blown out. Can't get it to operate. Luckily, I backed up my computer on the larger one, but now I worry about that after readng your post.
What do you use. I have data that has to backed up nightly.

Thanks,
Jane

I built a computer a few years ago just for backups. For long term I use a 750 zip drive, which people tease me about on other forums. So far in the 6+ years I've been using a zip drive, I've never had one fail.

Life got crazy for me, I haven't had time to back up to zip, so I have 3 hard drives in my computer - the main one, a 160 gig that I run "my documents" from and a 200 gig that backs up the 160 gig.

I just purchased 2 500 gig drives, which will hold backups of all of the computers in the house. This will replace the other drives for me.

Hi - I have tried all suggestions from everyone except using a different computer. Have to get to my sons house for that. As stated - the external drive opens in Windows Media with no problem. Also, it opened with the desktop icon but it took a long time to open.

My main concern now is - is there something wrong with my PC ? It seems to open everything else fine from "my computer" ( CD's, ETC.) Just refuses to open this hard drive. Thanks for your help. Debbie.

Forget it Roslvr...you are way ahead of me. I'll take my chances on the Maxtor. Sometimes I use a 1 gig thumb drive, but that's it.

Jane

Debbie, your initial post says you leave the drive plugged into the power supply. Ouch! It is running 24/7? Definitely not a wise choice, the drive is spinning continuously. Try something silly and unplug for an hour. Then try once it has cooled down.

Owbist - will try that tonight. Thanks, I had no idea it was actually "on". I thought that if it wasn't connected to the PC - it was off. Debbie