External hard drive failed

ChiefGrasscutter

as per @bsod it was news to me as well!
The thought that a disc drive could maintain a vacuum over maybe 10 to 15 years of operation seems rather far fetched.
I dimly recall that the operation relies on a cushion of air between the rotating platter and the head - not dissimilar to the so called ground effect on a landing plane.

enfield_freddy

bsod wrote: »

more misinformation.

Freezer bags aren't vacuum devices either. Things coming out of a domestic freezer are wet, bagged or not.

before you start misquoting and altering the wording


I used the words "freezer bag" , at no point did I say they were a vacuum bag or other ,


and I actually used the phase
"I seem to recall that the head and discs are actually sealed from the fresh air "


again the word vacuum was not used


yourself and other people have altered my txt to read "heads are in a vacuum"


I never said that!

bsod

Haven't misquoted or altered any words, and don't intend to, there is no need.

The inference that a problem with a hard disk not mounting under windows is going to be fixed by (almost) freezing it, and any worries about water or frost or temperature damage can be dispelled by placing it in a flimsy freezer bag is ridiculous, as is relying on technical advice from youtube video's.

The op hasn't provided any update, maybe it's currently in the land of the ice lolly, so once you have had your final say, lets leave it there?

You may have heard of Seagate, they make hard disks -

http://blog.seagate.com/business/friends-dont-let-friends-freeze-their-hard-drives/

enfield_freddy

Freezer bags aren't vacuum devices either.


either. = same as , same as what , someone saying the platters were in vacuum

DCFC79

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Could try rebuilding the MBR.

ETA: OP, have you tried viewing the drive in Command Prompt?

Didn't know I could do that, Ill look into it.

DCFC79

bsod wrote: »

How do you think adding a layer of water droplets between the head and the platter and adding water to electronics is going to improve the situation.

Perhaps the people who do data recovery professionally know a little more about how a hard disk works and fails than Joe Bloggs.

Best course of action other than pay for recovery, is find a machine with a motherboard ide adapter and try recovery software.

The fact windows is attempting and failing to mount the filesystem, so is suggesting a format, suggests a logical corruption, freezing it could turn that into a physical problem.

See if the drive shows up in disk management. (diskmgmt.msc) - if it does, the data is probably recoverable with software. The disk manufacturer may have a free tool available to aid diagnosis too.

The drive shows up in diskmgmt.

Disk manf is WD so ill have a look.

Johnmcl7

If you're getting far enough that the drive is powering up and appearing in disk management, I'd fire up recovery software as that gives you the best chance of getting the data back. If the drive is failing it may be the time spent trying to get it working normally means you lose your chance at getting the data back.

Edit - Oops, I missed that bsod said pretty much exactly the same thing on the previous page but needless to agree with that advice.

John

Moto2

I've had some success booting with Barts PE and then using the file utility (A42) to access and copy files unavailable under the original OS.

Not sure why that should be the case but maybe worth a try?

[Deleted User]

DCFC79 wrote: »

Didn't know I could do that, Ill look into it.

Which part did you not think you could do?

DCFC79

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

If you're getting far enough that the drive is powering up and appearing in disk management, I'd fire up recovery software as that gives you the best chance of getting the data back. If the drive is failing it may be the time spent trying to get it working normally means you lose your chance at getting the data back.

Edit - Oops, I missed that bsod said pretty much exactly the same thing on the previous page but needless to agree with that advice.

John

Yes I was going to give recuva a go and easeus.