External Hard Drive not recognized by computers

[bdthomas02]

None of my computers (3 laptops, 1 Apple laptop, and 1 Apple desktop) are recognizing my external hard drive.  I have some very valuable information on the hard drive I need to retrieve.  I have USB disks that are being recognized by all of my computers so I know it is not the USB ports.  When I plug the external hard drive in the computer the light on the hard drive lights up and the motor is turning but the computer does not recognize it.  Are there any software that can read a hard drive that is not being detected by the computer?  Someone suggested Recuva but it did not work (the software works because I inserted a USB drive and the software detected it) regarding the external hard drive.  Is there some data recovery software or hardware I can purchase to retain my information instead of sending it to a data recovery company that will cost me an arm and a leg just to retain my information?  I am trying to prevent spending thousands of dollar to retrieve information from a hard drive that cost me less than a hundred dollars.  Any suggestions are welcome.



Thanks,



bdthomas02 

[patio]

I would remove it from the enclosure and hook it up internally as a slave drive...

[Geek-9pm]

No software solution. It is hardware

None of my computers (3 laptops, 1 Apple laptop, and 1 Apple desktop) are recognizing my external hard drive.

That alone is enough reason to believe the interface it not working.
If the interface was working at all, it would report the hard drive is not ready.
This is a hardware issue with the interface, not the hard drive.
Most common cause is the power supply fort he external drive is failing.
Either do as Patio said, or:
You need to find another external USB to HDD adapter, with power supply.
On Amazon, Newegg and other vendors, these devices are very low-cost. A few years back these things were junk, but the quality is now better.

The image is from Walmart.
Here is the link
External Drive Adapter.