HELP. Data Recovery from a dead external hard drive.
Mar 19, 2017 07:30:29 #
rmalarz wrote:
If what you have on that drive is worth $600, I'd ... (show quote)
I agree with malarz, if you want it done right and it's important, let Seagate do it. I had a drive fail, took it to a local computer repair shop. 2 weeks layer and 150 dollars lighter in the wallet,I had squat. Sent it to Western Digital, paid 300 more and got everything back. I know have multiple drives plugged into my computer,all automatically backing up everything.
Mar 19, 2017 07:30:31 #
BJW wrote:
Looks like I got a dead Seagate external hard drive on my hands. With no back up. (ugh) I plugged it into the USB port on my Mac but it does not mount (although it did yesterday). Other external hard drives have no trouble mounting, so it must be the drive itself.
Seagate charges about $600 to recover the data.
Can anyone make a recommendation for a data recovery service that can do it for less?
Thank you. BJ
Seagate charges about $600 to recover the data.
Can anyone make a recommendation for a data recovery service that can do it for less?
Thank you. BJ
Not even necessarily the drive itself: It could be one of the connections, somewhere between the drive and the computer. My son ran into what sounded like a similar problem. Message from a repair-guy: Throw it away, nothing salvageable. Instead he bought a case at a flea-market for 2 or 3 dollars, Opened up the old case, took out the drive and put it into the "new" case, and it's been working fine ever since.
Mar 19, 2017 07:53:45 #
johnst1001a
Loc: West Chester, Ohio
The hard drive on my computer quit recently. 750gb data, lost. Well, lost on that drive, I had it fully backed up, do it every day. I also have all important files backed up a third time on another drive. Sure makes life a lot easier.
Mar 19, 2017 08:16:44 #
I know a guy who has done that for me a couple of times on Seagate drives. I'll be happy to share his name if you want. He's in Chandler, AZ. Expensive, but good.
Mar 19, 2017 08:19:25 #
Computer stores sell external drive enclosures for under $10. If its spinning it might be the bridge intereface and switching the drive from 1 enclosure to another might solve the issue.
Mar 19, 2017 08:53:11 #
FWIW... I had a Western Digital MyBook that failed to boot one day recently. Nothing I tried was successful. It would attempt to start, but wouldn't get very far before stopping. I did some research and found out that the onboard controller sometimes fails, and the problem may not be the drive itself.
So, I took the drive out and used a cable and power supply that my son had, to see if it would boot-up. And, it did! Works great, no problems... just isn't in that fancy enclosure anymore.
Not sure that my experience is helpful to you, but perhaps it is. Good luck!
So, I took the drive out and used a cable and power supply that my son had, to see if it would boot-up. And, it did! Works great, no problems... just isn't in that fancy enclosure anymore.
Not sure that my experience is helpful to you, but perhaps it is. Good luck!
Mar 19, 2017 08:54:58 #
Gitchigumi wrote:
So, I took the drive out and used a cable and power supply that my son had, to see if it would boot-up.
So the basic drive itself was okay? I'll have to remember that. I have several sets of wires and housings for internal drives used externally.
Mar 19, 2017 09:00:46 #
jerryc41 wrote:
So the basic drive itself was okay? I'll have to remember that. I have several sets of wires and housings for internal drives used externally.
Yes, Jerry, the drive itself was perfectly fine. The problem, for me, was that contoller board inside the WD MyBook housing. The controller board had failed and could not boot the drive. I removed the drive and can now use it again. Problem solved, no data lost.
Mar 19, 2017 09:35:50 #
Shellback wrote:
If you are willing to do some technician work - it is possible the controller card is bad but the drive and data is still OK -
Here is a video that shows how to recover the data - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cTZBMi-XwQ
Here is a video that shows how to recover the data - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cTZBMi-XwQ
What a great video and great help that was. Thanks for sharing with us. Hope none of my external drives don't fail anytime soon, but, if they do I at least one way of possibly fixing them. Thanks Again.
Mar 19, 2017 09:46:32 #
If you are handy you can remove the drive from it's enclosure and pop it in a drive dock or get an sata adapter and try it that way. Inside the case should be a regular drive and it may only be your enclosure. I have had this work.
Mar 19, 2017 09:59:49 #
If the drive is spinning and not making any unusual noises, there is a very good possibility that the drive is ok and only the interface is bad. I have seen this several times and in all cases was able to remove the drive from the housing, attach a USB drive adapter and successfully recover all files. In both cases I purchaesd generic USB drive enclosures and installed the drive in the new enclosure.
Mar 19, 2017 10:11:31 #
blackest wrote:
If the drive is spinning it is not a head crash which is good.
...
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FYI- Heads can crash and the drive keep spinning!
A crash is the loss of the air cushion that the head floats upon and the head physically contacts the disk, usually scraping the oxide from the disk in some areas. (The air cushion is microns thick.)
Years ago I did R&D for disk heads and saw quite a few crashes.
Edit: Dang, I actually found info existing on the net about the Univac 8405 fixed head disk system, surprised me!
Mar 19, 2017 10:42:48 #
BJW wrote:
Looks like I got a dead Seagate external hard drive on my hands. With no back up. (ugh) I plugged it into the USB port on my Mac but it does not mount (although it did yesterday). Other external hard drives have no trouble mounting, so it must be the drive itself.
Seagate charges about $600 to recover the data.
Can anyone make a recommendation for a data recovery service that can do it for less?
Thank you. BJ
Seagate charges about $600 to recover the data.
Can anyone make a recommendation for a data recovery service that can do it for less?
Thank you. BJ
The same things happened on my machine only it's running Windows, spins but wouldn't read. If you look back to January some day, I had a Trojan virus, (stupid people that put them on normally good sites), and when a geek got rid of it for me, it turns out the 3.0 USB port stopped working but my 2.0 still worked fine. I suggest you try using it on a known good 2.0 USB port.
What he did was to go to my motherboard's home page site and downloaded a new 3.0 USB driver for my Mboard. Problem solved!
He told me that problem has happened often and it is because Seagate uses a very low grade driver in the software included with their offline drives. It often gets wiped out with anti virus programs so he knew precisely how to fix it.
Check on the driver before spending money where you don't need to.
Mar 19, 2017 10:45:07 #
Put it in a sealed bag and THEN put it in the freezer. Shouldn't get any moisture inside either way but might as well be safe. If you have any of those silica gel packets, throw that in the bag as well. Sometimes the freezer fix does work! I have used EaseUS data recovery for 20 years and it is the best in my opinion. If a drive can be saved at all, EaseUS will save it! if not, then sending it off will be your only option. If the platens (disks) are removed, there is a way to read them and recover the data. That is why it is so expensive. It has to be done in a dust-free environment. This is how the FBI does it.
Mar 19, 2017 11:02:10 #
Gitchigumi wrote:
The problem, for me, was that contoller board inside the WD MyBook housing.
Ah, yes.
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