Dropped External Hard Drive Recovery and Repair Guide

What Happens to a Dropped External Hard Drive?

External hard drives are not as tough as you might think. With multiple moving parts, they are fragile devices. Even a short drop can cause physical damage, whether on a soft surface, especially if the drive is still attached to a computer when it is dropped.

• When a disk is dropped, the read/write head and the platter storing the data can make contact if it is being used, resulting in irreversible data loss.
• Conversely, the read/write head will park away from the platter, causing less damage.
• Regarding older hard drives with a parking or landing zone at the inner edge of the platter, strong shocks can damage the platter, even if it is not in use.
• In addition, severe falls may cause additional issues like bent platters, seized spindle motors, and cable and connector port damage.

Symptoms of a Dropped External Hard Drive

You may not have a clear idea of the symptoms of a dropped external hard drive. We've collected some common symptoms you may experience below.

• Consistent and loud clicking sounds: indicate damage to the actuator, actuator arm, or actuator axis, preventing proper read/write head movement or the read/write head from having problems reading data on the disk.
• Whirring sounds: suggest a spindle or read/write head crash. The read/write head may be scraping on the platter. 
• Beeping noise: often points to a malfunctioning or damaged spindle motor hub. The drop may affect the power supply of the spindle motor, making the platter not spin properly or fail completely now. 
• Bad sectors: not only data loss, but a dropped drive may also cause bad sectors. Some files may randomly disappear and reappear while the drive becomes sluggish.
• Drive not recognized: fails to detect the drive by Windows and does not boot at all. The external disk may not have any sound. Even if it’s recognized, you may experience performance issues, such as running slower, frequent hanging, etc.

In some cases, your hard drive seems to be fine, without any unusual behavior. However, you may find some of the above symptoms become apparent later. Thus, even so, it is still suggested to copy all the files on the dropped disk to another storage device.

How to Perform Dropped External Hard Drive Recovery 

After dropping external hard drive, you may want to repair it in the first place. But the problem is that any operation on this disk may cause further data loss. Considering this, it’s suggested to recover data from dropped hard drives first.

In general, you cannot use data recovery software to get your data back in this scenario, because it is physical damage instead of logical damage. But in some cases, it is capable.

• The drive is detected and available in Disk Management.
• Don’t hear abnormal clicking, whirring, or beeping sounds.

If your drive meets the above conditions, you can still recover data from dropped external hard drive yourself with the software. If not, it is advisable to disconnect the drive and contact a professional data recovery service.

Way 1: Recover Data from Dropped External Hard Drive with Software

When it comes to data recovery software, AOMEI FastRecovery is highly recommended for its top algorithms, user-friendly GUI, high success rate, wide compatibility, etc.

Step 1. Download and install AOMEI FastRecovery on your computer. Meanwhile, connect your external hard disk using a USB adapter. Click Disk Data Recovery at a lower location. To recover specific files or folders, click Deleted Files Recovery.

Step 2. You'll see all available drives. Select the dropped external hard disk and click Scan to search this drive deeply and display all recoverable data.

Step 3. Under the Type section, expand the data type one by one to find what you want. Sort name, date modified, type, etc., on the right panel.

To locate files quickly, you can try the following two options. Then, double-click the file to preview and confirm it's exactly what you want.

• Search by name or file extension. Then, use the "Sort" feature.
• For specific file sizes or large files, combine the “Filter” & "Sort" features. 

Step 4. Select your desired data and click the Recover button. Double-click to preview files if you are not sure.

Way 2: Seek Assistance from Professional Data Recovery Services

In most cases, seeking help from a professional data recovery service, i.e., Geek Squad, SalvageData, DriveSaver, Secure Data Recovery, etc., is the best choice to recover data from dropped external hard drive. Although expensive, the success rate is higher. They usually offer highly skilled technicians with professional expertise and advanced recovery equipment for data recovery. The overall steps:

• Submit a request with details about the issue and device 
• Ship your drive to the service center for evaluation. If possible, take it to the nearest drop-off location.
• Approve the recovery quote and process. 
• Recover data and return them back with a specified device. Or from cloud storage or a NAS system.
• Review and verify the recovered data.

How to Repair a Dropped External Hard Drive (After Recovery) 

After dropping external hard drive recovery, you can try to check the disk cable or USB port. If either of them is damaged, replace it with a new one. Also, try other methods in the following.

Way 1: Perform a Disk Checker

Windows comes along with multiple commands, such as CHKDSK, which is able to detect and fix bad sectors on the disk. You may be at risk of erasing your data from the dropped external hard drive. So be sure you start a dropped hard drive recovery first.

Step 1. Type cmd in the search box and select Run as administrator.

Step 2. In the command prompt window, type chkdsk *: /f /r /x and press Enter. It will start the scanning process and mark bad sectors as unusable. Please replace * with the drive letter of your external disk.

Way 2: Replace the External Disk Controller Board

You could also consider disassembling the casing and swapping out the controller board if it's the only damaged component in the external hard drive. Usually, it consists of a regular HDD and a PCB (acting as the controller) and is attached to the SATA port.

Then, connect this external drive internally to the motherboard or use a SATA to USB cable to connect it as an external storage device.

How to Backup Files on External Hard Drive Safely 

To ensure your data on external disk is always safe, you can also consider using reliable Windows backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard to backup them regularly. 

• With its Schedule Backup feature, you are able to create automatic backups on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, as well as for specific events.
• By default, it will enable incremental backup in a scheduled task that backup only changed files after the first full backup.
• You can save your data on another external disk, or other devices like network or NAS drive, cloud drive, USB drive, etc.

Step 1. Download and install this reliable backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard. Launch it, select Backup and File Backup.

Step 2. Click Select Source > Add Folder or Add File and select your data on the external disk. Please be sure your disk is connected.  

Step 3. Click the dropdown and select a local path, network share, NAS, or cloud drive. Then, specify an available device, such as another external disk.

Step 4. Click Schedule Backup > Enable Schedule Backup and select Daily, Weekly, Monthly (By Date), Event trigger, etc.

Step 5. Finally, confirm you select all the important data and click Start Backup to back them up completely.

Conclusion

Dropping external hard drive may cause severe consequences, even for a short time, but with the right method, you are able to start a dropped external hard drive recovery and get your data back as soon as possible.

Don’t try to recover data on your own with software - AOMEI FastRecovery unless you are sure it’s recognized and there are no clicking, whirring, or beeping sounds. If either of them is not satisfied, the best choice is to consider using professional data recovery services.