Damaged external hard drive- suggestions: Ok it happened. I managed to knock over a Seagate 5TB hard drive while it was running. Froze Lightroom I was working in on an image on the HD.

osoblancophoto Loc: Venice FL

Ok it happened. I managed to knock over a Seagate 5TB hard drive while it was running. Froze Lightroom I was working in on an image on the HD. Rebooted computer and does not recognize the Seagate. Tries multiple times and with different cable and different USB port- and with different computer. No go.
Does anyone have useful constructive suggestions on services that recover data from mechanicllly damaged hard drives? Does anyone have experience with this place? PITS Global Data Recovery Services
Web: www.pitsdatarecovery.com

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Other than from backups?

Will be very pricey. Sounds like at least one head crashed.

Sorry, I've never had a drive recovered.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Looking for reviews of this company online will result in better information that what you may glean from the potential few that might have contracted with them from here.
--Bob

osoblancophoto wrote:

Ok it happened. I managed to knock over a Seagate ... (show quote)

tramsey Loc: Texas

I've had pretty good luck with a program call Recovera. It got a much smaller external hard drive going and then I back it up. Later it went out for good. Some say if you put the thing in a freezer over night that will work. I think that is a bunch of horse hooky. It sounds too ridiculous for me to even try it, But is what I know

Good Luck That's one reason to back up

bebop22 Loc: New York City

I can tell you it will be much money. I have experienced this and it was pricey.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Is the drive spinning? (You can feel it)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

tramsey wrote:

I've had pretty good luck with a program call Recovera. It got a much smaller external hard drive going and then I back it up. Later it went out for good. Some say if you put the thing in a freezer over night that will work. I think that is a bunch of horse hooky. It sounds too ridiculous for me to even try it, But is what I know

Good Luck That's one reason to back up

The "freezer fix" was simply a matter of luck for that particular failure mode.
I don't think Recovera will help much if the drive will not mount.
There is no "one size fits all answer" as it depends on the failure mode of the drive.
- bearing seizure
- electronic component failure
- head crash
- ...

Shock usually causes head crashes as the air bearing the heads fly (float) on is destroyed.
The heads fly only angstroms above the disk on a cushion of air.
When the heads crash, they scrape the oxide coating off of the platter and cause "groves" in the coating.
The crashed area has to re-burnished to possibly have a head float on it again. Data in the damaged area is usually not recoverable, depending on the severity of the crash.

Now if there are multiple platters (most likely), the platter assembly will have to be disassembled and each surface checked, and burnished if required, and the platter stack re-assembled.
It may not as simple as putting the platter stack in another drive. In order to do this, all of the heads must be removed.

Backups are a MUST!

(I did R&D work on disk heads and platters years ago at Sperry Univac.)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

bebop22 wrote:

I can tell you it will be much money. I have experienced this and it was pricey.

Depending on the failure mode and work involved, between $700 – $2,000 has been reported.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Longshadow wrote:

The "freezer fix" was simply a matter of... (show quote)

Yep, and this is why a backup and an off-site DR copy is cheap insurance for your data.

BTW, in VietNam, I maintained a pair of Univac 1105s running SAAL, and I worked for Sperry for awhile after leaving the military.

osoblancophoto Loc: Venice FL

TriX wrote:

Is the drive spinning? (You can feel it)

I don't think it is spinning. Sounded like it at first but now doesn't

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

TriX wrote:

Yep, and this is why a backup and an off-site DR copy is cheap insurance for your data.

BTW, in VietNam, I maintained a pair of Univac 1105s running SAAL, and I worked for Sperry for awhile after leaving the military.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

osoblancophoto wrote:

I don't think it is spinning. Sounded like it at first but now doesn't

If you hold it, and try to turn it, you will feel resistance from the gyroscopic effect of the platter spinning, plus you can feel the vibration. Is it in an external case? If so, I would at least remove it and plug it directly into power and SATA port (assuming you have a desktop) just in the event the fall dislodged a connector.

If it isn’t spinning, as a last resort, you can slap the surface of the drive with the flat of your hand. If it does start then, copy the data off ASAP!. I’ve never tried the “put it into the freezer” trick, but if I did, it would be in a ziplock, and the let it come to room temp before removing as moisture can condense on the platter(s) when you remove it into a warmer more humid environment, and that is a bad thing.

therwol Loc: USA

TriX wrote:

I’ve never tried the “put it into the freezer” trick, but if I did, it would be in a ziplock, and the let it come to room temp before removing as moisture can condense on the platter(s) when you remove it into a warmer more humid environment, and that is a bad thing.

I read about doing this, and condensation inside of the drive can be a serious issue. Slapping the drive and/or sharp twisting has been suggested instead.

Two things in my opinion. Don't use consumer grade external drives as working drives. I can't remember how many times I've read of this scenario on UHH. They can fail on their own without any incident on your part. If you must use one for backing up data, then make sure you have 1 or 2 other backups, either in the form of of another drive or drives or additionally in the cloud. I personally do use the consumer grade external drives for backup in triplicate, with my most important files in the cloud. One of my sets of external drives is kept at my son's house, and the one I'm working on at the moment is updated periodically. Paranoid? Perhaps, but my pictures are everything to me

Canisdirus

Hard to say if it can be repaired...it may not be.

Externals...go with SSD's.
No moving parts...better for on the go stuff...and tougher.

Jhund172

It could just be that the connection between the computer and the drive failed. You can get a new case (around $10-15) and plug the drive in see if that solves the problem. I was able to save drives from old laptops to use for storage with these cases. Good luck