Can I repair an external hard drive?

keithwales

I bought a Gericom external hard drive some time ago.
It's out of the guarantee period sadly, so are they repairable?
Or do i just bin it?
It wasn't used a lot, although we have some photographs and a lot of music on there so I was hoping they are not lost.

epz_2

whats wrong with it, they tend to be standard desktop ide hard disks so if its a power issue you could just fit it to a desktop pc, if its the drive thats !!!!!!ed i wouldnt put a different disk in since odds are the external adaptor blew it up.

keithwales

Thanks,
When the power goes on it seems to be trying to start, but that lasts for a few seconds and then it goes quiet. No output to pc at all. Power light is on.
Do you think it's the drive then? I assume then it's a lost cause.
Not to worry!

epz_2

sounds more like the psu is cheap tat and cant handle the load of powering up the drive, i would put it in a pc and check, worst case its 5 mis work with a screwdriver to find out

Avoriaz

Either the enclosure/caddy or the drive itself has failed.

With luck it is the enclosure and not the drive.

As epz advises, test the drive in a working enclosure or PC. Open up the enclosure and you should find a standard drive in there. If it works, transfer the data to another drive or buy a new enclosure.

For future reference, even if a drive is under warranty, you can’t get your data back under warranty.

Always have at least two copies of essential data stored on separate media, preferably in separate locations if possible.