Any External Hard Drive Guru's for recovery?

ks-waterbug

ks-waterbug

Group Buy Guy
Donating Member
Got a friend that recently dropped her external hard drive and now it isn't recognized when plugged in. Has roughly 2000 photos on it, some of the pictures can't be replaced and she is pretty heart broken. Looking for an oRgster who might be able to lend a hand, and possibly make some extra coin if the photos can be recovered. Its a Western Digital Drive.
 
B4 spending cash has she exhausted a bad cable?

Dropping on the usb cable end would certainly take its toll.

Dropping it on the power supply line...same.

I'd then remove the cover and look at the circuit board near those two points and look for cracks.

After that,a computer tech who's fixed them b4.

RSD.
 
you cant just pull the hard drive out and put it in a pc. the drive is encrypted with that case. send it to WD and they will recover/fix it. just tell them its not working. don't tell them you dropped it. If you open the case you void the warranty
 
MoeMar said:
you cant just pull the hard drive out and put it in a pc. the drive is encrypted with that case. send it to WD and they will recover/fix it. just tell them its not working. don't tell them you dropped it. If you open the case you void the warranty
Click to expand...


So just lie to them. Is that a good example to set....:nono:

pchell.jpg
 
Some hard drives can be removed from the cases and accessed via one of these 33in USB 2.0 to IDE or Serial ATA Drive Adapter Cable - C2G

We have two of them at work and I have recovered several broken external hard drives. Also, have her check to see if it shows up in "Disk Manager" on the PC. Even if you cannot see it in Windows Explorer, you may be able to see it in disk manager and that would give you some sort of a sign of life.

Keep us posted, there are options, just have to figure out why the HD is not working, is it the HD itself, the connections, cable or something else.

EDIT: What does it do when you plug it in, for example is there a light at all that should come on, does it make any buzzing or beeping noises, etc?
 
I have one that has been on a shelf for a while with the same issue. I would love some ideas on what to try if anyone has any
 
Back in the day when we crashed a drive ........ we shipped them off, yes they were the size and look of a washing machine, but much improved over tape drives or memory drums :laugh:
 
dadofthree said:
Can you still damage a platter with the head by dropping the drive ?
Click to expand...

Yes, although some drives have the ability to sense the drop and park the head. Sometimes platter damage can be overcome with minimal data loss. Worse than a damaged platter is a damaged head from the same impact.
 
I'd be glad to help, but data recovery is a tricky thing to do remotely. Feel free to PM me. I've been able to recover a large number of the drives encountered.

Are you saying it isn't getting a drive letter? Or that it isn't being recognized at all when it's plugged in? What type and size (physical size)?
 
Also, you never mentioned but loud repetitive clicks for an indefinite amount of time are generally a real bad sign.
 
send it to me if you like. I will recover the data if it is possible. It would be my guess from what you said the drive has come diconnected from the pins in the inside. It happens a lot. Requires a quick reseat and off you go.
 
Thanks all for the offers to help with this issue and for the in site as to how evaluate if its toast. oRg rocks...
I will be sending this out shortly to the first oRg member that pm'd me and again I really appreciate all of those who offered to help.
 
If the interface is unreadable - ie the cables internal circuits, connections are bad then the only way is to have a professional recovery done.
They pull the drive apart in a clean room not to contaminate the platters.
They then house it in a machine that reads the platters and pulls your data off.

Its a very expensive service so be prepared to determine if your data is worth that much.
I had a drive die and they had to pull it apart.
$2500

Data on it was worth much more.... Just so happened I didn't back the drive up that week and see what happened....

If the drive is still mountable to the operating system you can use something like RR studio to pull any data off the computer may not see.
 
shade said:
If the interface is unreadable - ie the cables internal circuits, connections are bad then the only way is to have a professional recovery done.
They pull the drive apart in a clean room not to contaminate the platters.
They then house it in a machine that reads the platters and pulls your data off.

Its a very expensive service so be prepared to determine if your data is worth that much.
I had a drive die and they had to pull it apart.
$2500

Data on it was worth much more.... Just so happened I didn't back the drive up that week and see what happened....

If the drive is still mountable to the operating system you can use something like RR studio to pull any data off the computer may not see.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the oRg Shade :thumbsup:
 
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