Question

A user reports that he is unable to access data on an external hard drive. You investigate the problem and determine that the USB cable connection to the hard drive is damaged. You replace the cable. Which of the following actions should you take NEXT?

1) Check if the hard drive is recognized by the computer
2) Restart the computer and try accessing the hard drive again
3) Check if the hard drive is formatted correctly
4) Test the hard drive on a different computer

Answer 1

After replacing the damaged USB cable connection to the external hard drive, the next action is to check if the hard drive is recognized by the computer. If not recognized, restart the computer and try accessing the hard drive again. If the issue persists, test the hard drive on a different computer.

Step-by-step explanation:

The next action to take after replacing the damaged USB cable connection to the external hard drive is to check if the hard drive is recognized by the computer. This can be done by checking for the drive in the file explorer or disk management on the computer.

If the hard drive is not recognized, it may be necessary to restart the computer and try accessing the hard drive again. Sometimes, a restart can help the computer detect and recognize the newly connected device.

If the above troubleshooting steps do not solve the problem, it may be worth testing the hard drive on a different computer, to determine if the issue is specific to the computer or the hard drive itself.