Data recovery USB external hard drive

will3001 · 14-03-2010 1:11pm #1

Folks

So I'm trying to recover data from a USB external seagate 500Gb hard drive. The drive experienced a spike so I think the board is fried although it doesn't have any signs of damage as such.

After dismantling the drive I have the standard hard drive with a push on PCB board. When I removed said board the pins are not the standard IDE connectors but rather like thin spade connectors

Is my only option to get a replacement board for the drive or are there other ways to retrieve the data.

Thanks

MunsterCycling · 14-03-2010 1:35pm

That is a Sata drive:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

ttm · 14-03-2010 1:49pm

First off try it in a PC, it has to be either IDE or SATA so isn't that difficult to connect.

I used to do a few logic board swaps to recover data, but have done less and less in recent years as firstly drives seem more reliable and secondly because I've found it works less often. Once entry level drives got bigger than about 80GB I found logic board swapping didn't seem to work at all on the few I tried. So I'd say its not worth the effort of finding the same logic board on eBay (which might have come off a dead HDD anyway so how do you know it will work) to try but if you have an identical drive you don't mind throwing away then you can try. I say try as I've also had interal shorts on drives that just blew up the replacement logic board.

will3001 · 14-03-2010 2:21pm

So just had a look inside my PC and I'm not sure I have a spot to connect to an SATA. Would the cable be sitting available like a similar IDE. ?

Thanks

ttm · 14-03-2010 3:11pm

will3001 wrote: »

So just had a look inside my PC and I'm not sure I have a spot to connect to an SATA. Would the cable be sitting available like a similar IDE. ?

Thanks

Check MunsterCycling's link it has pics of everything you are looking for if its a SATA drive. To be sure its a SATA HDD just google IMAGES of "sata hard drive" and "IDE hard drive" to see the differences.

If its IDE then you can unplug your CDROM/DVD drive and plug your suspect HDD in its place. Obviously while the system is off and unplugged then boot and see if the drive is recognised.

This pic shows the diffenence between IDE top and SATA bottom.....

will3001 · 14-03-2010 4:54pm

So would agree that the drive is SATA. It doesn't look like any of the spare cables I have are SATA. Is it possible to get an SATA cable and plug into motherboard or will I have to find a more modern PC.

Ta

ttm · 14-03-2010 5:54pm

If you don't have a connector on your motherboard like the one at the top of the page from MunsterCycling's link then you must have an older motherboard with only IDE cables? If thats the case try and see if you can get a friend to try it in their PC, no point spending money as it may not work, at most you need SATA cable which should't be more than a fiver (and thats a rip price).

If you want to give it a try without messing around inside your computer then this USB 2.0 TO SATA / IDE CABLE FOR HDD W/ POWER ADAPTER UK off eBay will give you all the options you could wish for.

MunsterCycling · 14-03-2010 10:35pm

What part of the country are you in? If near you can drop it to me and I'll look at it for you.

MC

will3001 · 14-03-2010 11:16pm

I'm in cork during the week and in Tipperary some weekends. I'll maybe try the IT department at work and see if I can get a suitable cable.

Thanks for all the replies

Data recovery USB external hard drive

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