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Dead external hard drive recovery, how?

My external hard drive died and made a small noise. It seems that it is trying to boot up, but it won’t show files. There are many import data on it and I want to get them back. How?

Ps: I tried it in all usb ports and on several other computers.


Comments

  • Is it making a clicking noise?  If so, the drive read/write heads are not unparking.  This is almost always a mechanical problem.  When a drive gets like this there isn't much you can do in most cases.  If it's a grinding noise, the heads are likely scraping the disk platter surface.  If that occurs the data is lost.   For the former case if the data is worth it to you, then the drive can be sent to a data recovery company where they have the necessary equipment to take it apart and pull the data.

  • imageI'm afraid it's a grinding soundimagebut I sure will take it to a data recovery company to have a try. Hope it will work!!!image

  • Good luck.  Be prepared too.  Most data recovery companies are rather proud of their work, so they aren't cheap.

  • Thanks very much for your care, Darylsonnier!

  • Hello,

    It seems that I have a similar situation:

    My 1tb Transcent store jet stopped working! it makes a faint sound when I plug it back in, like a dying beeping sound. The light on the button doesn’t on and it can’t be recognized when plugged into my Mac, either laptop or desktop. It's a "rugged" external hard drive so it should be ok to be dropped etc. Is it toast? Is there any hope for my data recovery? 

    Any advice will be appreciated!


  • Jimji, you are welcome.


    Itty, if the drive is making weird noises there's a good chance that it's physically (mechanically) failing.  Since it's an external, though, there is another thing to try.  Occasionally the controller in an external enclosure will fail while the drive itself is fine.  You could disassemble the system to pull the drive out then put it directly into your PC and see if it works there.  Also, many electronics stores sell external adapters and enclosures for hard drives.  Granted, if you know someone who has the tools to help you test the drive outside its original enclosure that would help.

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