External Hard Drive Died

pagangirl

Help someone pleeeeeeeese. External hard drive wouldn't connect, sounds like it's trying to, but blue light doesn't come on - took it to tech guy at PC w0rld - got told it's dead, and will cost £700 to recover data. I don't have that type of money to spare. Is there anyone out there who can give me any advice on how to recover the data please. My life is on this hard drive, all finances, family photos, family history etc. Ok if its dead, its dead but i need all the data on it !!!!!

It's a Medion drive-n-go. Only had it 18 months.

Any advice gratefully recieved. Many thanks

weegie.geek

I guess you now know the importance of backing up important thing multiple times.

Without knowing what's wrong with the drive it's hard to give advice, but either the external casing it's in is broken, or the drive is broken. If it's the external casing, it's a case of buying another case for about a tenner and transplanting it. This is what you hope has happened. The power supplies in these things have a habit of dying, so it's most likely. If you have a desktop PC there's a chance you'll be able to fit the drive inside it, at least to test it, and you'll then know whether to buy another case for it or not.

The guy in PC world said the drive itself was dead, but in all honesty I wouldn't listen to anything they say.

If it *IS* the drive, there are a few ways in which it could've broken, some more final than others. There's a PCB on the drive that is replaceable with an exact match from an identical drive. If this PCB has broken you can transplant a working PCB from a working drive, and it should work.

Assuming the PC can recognise and read the drive, there might be nothing wrong with your data, or you might have to run some data recovery software. You'll need a second drive to copy the data onto.

Then, on a more final/expensive note, there are internal errors like crashed or seized heads. These kinda things you won't be able to do anything about by yourself, so it's a case of sending it to an expensive data recovery company, and you're then looking at hundreds of pounds. Do have a good google first before choosing a company though, there are plenty of con men in that business.

Whatever happens, have multiple backups in future.

JasX

you could try pulling the actual drive out of the external case and connecting it internally to your PC, then run recuva or some low level drive diagnostics from the manufacturer.

if its internals are physically busted they are expensive to recover (up to £400...) thats why its important to keep backup copies of things

GeoffX

It could well just be that the controller in the external case has failed, so it might work just by attaching it internally to a desktop PC. I seem to remember reading that some of them have a known problem and are likely to fail. If not, something you might want to consider is Spinrite. It costs $89 but might recover your data. If you're unhappy with it you have 30 days to get a refund - http://www.grc.com/cs/licenseinfo.htm

Steveseven

hard drives dont die*.. but power supplies do.

depending what you have I would try the following.

Take hard drive out, and try sticking it in your PC.

if your not techy minded, find someone who is.

If the HD is not spinning then the data will always be recoverable.
( try charming a geek. )


**ok HD can sometime die. but the data is still there.

pagangirl

Thanks all - it definitely ain't dead totally, coz I just plugged it in, and it's making little whirly sparky noises, like it's singing a little song to itself (non-technical term here) just can't seem to make the connection to the main pewter.

Steveseven

mmm .. Im going for power supply if its not delivering full power it will cause probs.

googler

Find a local geek who knows how to remove the drive itself from the case that it's mounted in, and also knows how to move it to another case, or knows how to mount it as a secondary drive in your desktop PC.

closed

Before spending any money, take the case apart, and post the model of drive inside.

This will invalidate your warranty - if it's under warranty, or newish, you could take it up with the retailer or manufacturer, but there is no guarantee you will get your hard disk back once you send it off.

googler

closed wrote: »

Before spending any money, take the case apart, and post the model of drive inside.

...having taken suitable advice from a local geek on anti-static precautions etc.

closed

The local geek probably couldn't care less about anti-static precautions.