Hiya,
I'm fairly useless with machinery- my Maxtor Basics External Hardrive 250gb has died on me. When I plug it into the power the green light flashes briefly then goes off, it then whirs inside for a minute then stops.
It's been in storage for few months but was working before. Also I may have mangled the usb connection by accidentally trying to plug in a camera adapter by mistake. So there is every possibility that there are two unrelated problems- I don't know- I'm a moron.
It was always fairly dodgy- usb connector never stayed in properly- but I really would like my files back- any suggestions?

Thanks

can you try them on another machine first,to see if its the hd.if it works on another machine then work on the connection,is there not a few connection ports on your machine.

it's not working on other machines- my flatmate reckons the power's f#cked

does your HDD have two USB plugs (one for data transfer, one that says +power)? Also, is there a place to connect an AC power supply to it in the event the USB power up fails? If its a power issue, then the USB cable is prolly borked. The only way to really check is to use another USB cable on it, or hook up an AC power source if possible.