RIP External Hard Drive

Starlights

I have had my external hard drive about 4 months now, have used it twice, first time to put ALL my photos (approx 1,000) onto it and second time to take 1 thing from it.

I went to use it for the 3rd time two days ago and it wouldn't work.

Long story short:
It turns on but computer doesn't bring it up. The lights are on and I can hear the drive turning but there is now a beeping sound that wasn't there before.

I had someone take a look at it and they have said that it is broke and they couldn't get my files from it.

It is under guarantee from the place I bought it from AND also under warranty with the manufacture, so I went onto their website and they will replace it no problem but have said this:

Hitachi GST will not return the original drive to consumers; therefore, the consumer is responsible for moving data to another media before returning. Data Recovery is not covered under this warranty and is not part of the warranty returns process.

Now if they won't save my photos from it, can anyone tell me who will?? The reason why I got a hard drive in the first place was because I nearly lost all these photos from my laptop and really can't bear to lose them!

Thanks in advance

Starlights

Just to add, the guy that tried to fix it has told me that he can open the hard drive up and have a look.

This would mean losing my guarantee with the hard drive, but the photos still may not be able to be saved.

Which means I will have no saved files and no guarantee to replace to hard drive

I am at a total loss as to what to do, if it came down to it, I would want all my photos back than the money or the hard drive, but that can't be promised

bonzodog2

Most likely its just the enclosure, not the disk inside, that's faulty, assuming you haven't dropped it or plugged the wrong power adapter in. I'd be against letting anyone open up the disk inside, unless they run a data recovery company with a clean room.

A new enclosure can be got cheap, maybe less than e20 on ebay. I'm guessing its prob a 3.5" SATA drive inside, but you should check.

Starlights

Talking to a technical virgin here

I have priced a couple of data recovery companies online and they are charging anything from £250 - £600 :eek:

I love my photos, they mean the world to me but I just couldn't afford to spend that amount of money

No its hasn't been dropped and no wrong cables used. The cables are still half tied up as I have only used it twice, hard drive still in it protective film!

Where would I check what drive it is?

Thank you for replying

bonzodog2

You'll need to open the box to check. Look here for pictures of SATA connection, and here for the older IDE type.

Assuming it is a 3.5" SATA disk, this item on ebay would suit, for 11.50 GBP

Zillah

For future reference, if you want to save something permanently, store it online.

Starlights

Zillah wrote: »

For future reference, if you want to save something permanently, store it online.

Where would you recommend to store it online?

cookie1977

Well I have two identical hard drives of 1TB in size for local back up.

I use www.flickr.com for backing up photos. I've a pro account for 25 euro per year with unlimited storage (but there are free accounts too).
I also have a free dropbox account (www.dropbox.com) and a 30gb sugarsync account (www.sugarsync.com) for online backup and remote access to my important files for approx 40 euro per year (but there are free accounts too).

practice

Before you do anything try

1 A different cable
2 Try it on another computer

Can you see the drive in My Computer

Starlights

practice wrote: »

Before you do anything try

1 A different cable
2 Try it on another computer

Can you see the drive in My Computer

I don't have a spare cable to try and I have tried it on another computer, doesn't make a different.

No it won't show up on my computer, have done all the troubleshoot things on their website and nothing has worked

ricman

a standard sata case is 15 euro in maplins, i see no point in getting one from ebay .The chances are the units connecting pcb is faulty, the drive might be ok, you could try the freeze trick.
Seal unit in a water proof,plastic bag ,put in a fridge for 30mins,try again.the units power supply maybe faulty.
drives sometimes comeback to life at a lower temp, enough time to copy files to a pc.My 2 drives dont work on my friends pc, i suspect the files dealing with usb drive connection could be damaged.Do you get external device detected.After plugging in the drive.Be very gentle if you open the unit casing.

Starlights

No my computer won't pick it up at all, nor will the other computer I have tried it on...

Amalgam

Starlights, you've figured out already the warranty etc.. covers only the hardware, there's no consideration for your data, none.

You haven't mentioned any clicking or grinding, which means it could be the connector board.

I had a Hitachi Hard Drive that was 'dead', when I connected the HD to a new enclosure, it worked fine. The problem was a defective circuit board inside the enclosure that came with the drive.

Have you tried booting the computer using a live Linux CD\DVD, to see if the drive can be seen under a different OS\Non Windows environment?

ricman

Its pretty easy to take the hard drive out ,put it in an enclosure, do not touch the drive pcb underneath.Or try it in a net cafe ,or library pc.Or download linux mint to a cdr, livecd x86 version.