External USB hdd crashed

MACacd

Last night in my area we had a power cut, not normally a problem. But I was doing my monthly backup of my computer to an external Hard Disc Drive.

The problem is now my external HDD appears empty. Upon turning my external HDD I no longer get a popup window searching my drive and asking me how I want to open the drive (folder, media player etc etc) and the drive no longer appears within my computer.

Any advice? Any free recovery software? Help in general would be greatly appreciated.

twe

hmmmm.... not sure what to say..... i think those recovery programs will only work if the drive is recognised by windows..... have you tried different ports or if u have a different connection on the external hard drive tried that [for example firewire]...

MACacd

twe wrote:

have you tried different ports or if u have a different connection on the external hard drive tried that [for example firewire]...

Its only has a USB connection, but i haven't tried another port - it would be worth a go, nothing else is working.

twe

if its not under warranty and if the internal hard drive is easy to get to then i suggest u backup what u can by connecting it directly to the ide cable in ur computer.... i have an external hard drive, twice it has failed me... very annoying considering i use it to back things up... first the power supply unit died on me after 2 weeks of owning it.... then the actual hard drive died on me giving me error messages.... luckily i was able to backup most of the data.... but anyway that was an expensive £25 postage to germany [western digital]... hopefully this replacement does not die on me for a long time rather than 2 months...

MACacd

I also have a western digital, i believe its the wd 2000dd. This is the first time i have had any problems of any kind.

But i can't see how i would be able to connect direct to the ide cable the only connections are the usb.

I noticed WD had some software on the installation disc when initally installed the external drive, i will give that a try tonight.

Why do major hardware failures always happen in the early hours ?

twe

yeh sorry if u open it up the hard drive is connected to the usb board via ide cables... to make it external usb connection.... but if its similar to my WD then don't try and open it otherwise u will break it.... anyway this is my first and last WD product i buy... and yeh i know the company was bought out by seagate...

smckay

if you right click on my computer and select "manage" and then click on "disk management" under storage, when the USB HDD is turned on can you see it as a hard disk? it might offer some insight, if it is not been dectected by windows try another usb port, and if possible another pc. if it still doesnt work it would indicate a problem with the HDD itself.

matty_c608

Free Recovery Software:

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

It may help you recover a LOT of the data that was once on there. Nothing has 'overwritten' the files, so it should be pretty easy to get back!

Just make sure you don't backup to the same external drive, or you'll start overwriting data and will recover less and less and lesssss....

MACacd

I think its dead, its making a nasty noise now. I think its going out with the rubbish.

I managed to find some old backups on cd they are a few months old i don't think ive done alot since november. The major bulk of the data was music and ive got most of that on my mp3 player.

albertross_2

If it is a clicking noise, then you can sometimes get them going by giving them a Horizontal twisting shake, a bit like undoing a screw top, but don't do it in a vertical plane.

MACacd

trust me i have shaken it vigorously, i almost came to kicking it at one point. But i think something is damaged there is a nasty dragging noise. Its not a healthy at all.