Only with one external drive: power surge on the usb port

All of a sudden, when I connect one of my external drives (Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-Portable External HDD 1TB USB 3.0 Black 2.5"), I am taking "power surge on the usb port" and my keyboard and mouse stop working (when I disconnect the drive they work again).
The usb port is working fine with other external media (flash drive, HDD). This is happening only with that drive (which I have been using daily for a long time).
I tried all other usb ports with the same result. Also, an old netbook doesn't recognize the drive.
Is this a bad drive problem? Do I need to replace the drive? Is there a way to save the data in the drive (it's a backup drive but I want to access the old versions of my files)?

Thanks

George300 said:

All of a sudden, when I connect one of my external drives (Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-Portable External HDD 1TB USB 3.0 Black 2.5"), I am taking "power surge on the usb port" and my keyboard and mouse stop working (when I disconnect the drive they work again).
The usb port is working fine with other external media (flash drive, HDD). This is happening only with that drive (which I have been using daily for a long time).
I tried all other usb ports with the same result. Also, an old netbook doesn't recognize the drive.
Is this a bad drive problem? Do I need to replace the drive? Is there a way to save the data in the drive (it's a backup drive but I want to access the old versions of my files)?

Thanks

besides keyboard, mouse, and this drive, what else do you have plugged in by usb?

dalchina said:

Hi, it looks as if the cable can be swapped- if you can do that it's worth trying.

Yes, the cable is the only thing I had thought of. But since it's not working on the netbook...
I wasn't sure if the error message can be due to a faulty cable.

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tomdsr said:

besides keyboard, mouse, and this drive, what else do you have plugged in by usb?

I tried to disconnect everything but to no avail.

dalchina said:

- are you then using the SAME cable? If so, use a different one. If not, that leaves the drive.

Yes, the same. I'll try to find a different one.
Thanks

Looking at the data sheets for those drives they are dated 2010 so the Drive must be very old.
Such drives take a maximum current on spin up. The USB has limited current capacity.
Hence "power surge on the usb port".

The implication is the drive is taking much greater current than normal possibly due to the mechanics seizing up, or some other electrical fault.

Basically the drive is dying if not dead.

"Is this a bad drive problem? Do I need to replace the drive? "
Yes, and Yes.

Professional data recovery services are expensive.

Helmut said:

Looking at the data sheets for those drives they are dated 2010 so the Drive must be very old.
Such drives take a maximum current on spin up. The USB has limited current capacity.
Hence "power surge on the usb port".

The implication is the drive is taking much greater current than normal possibly due to the mechanics seizing up, or some other electrical fault.

Basically the drive is dying if not dead.

"Is this a bad drive problem? Do I need to replace the drive? "
Yes, and Yes.

Professional data recovery services are expensive.

Thanks for the detailed explanation.