Data Recovery - Dropped My External Drive

derv

I have a 1TB My Passport drive that was dropped.
It fell about 3 foot onto a wooden floor. Not a big fall really.

When I plug it into my laptop it is not being recognized. (tried Mac & Windows)
I can hear the disk spinning, and there is some intermittant clicking.

I brought the drive to Data Recovery/Computers Unlimited in Phibsboro.
I was gobsmacked when quoted me 350 - 390 euro to recover the data.

I have downloaded Virtuallab software for Mac, but the drive is not loading so can't use it.

Does anyone have any advice on what else I can do?
Is there anywhere else in Dublin that would recover the data for a bit less?

Thanks

Torqay

derv wrote: »

I brought the drive to Data Recovery/Computers Unlimited in Phibsboro.
I was gobsmacked when quoted me 350 - 390 euro to recover the data.

You should be lucky, I have seen people paying a lot more to have their data recovered from a smashed hard drive.

The "click of death" occurs when the actuator arm passes repeatedly over the spinning platter, slapping against the physical stop at the edge of the plate. It also means the disk and/or the circuit board is physically damaged and no solftware will do you any good if the drive is no longer detected. You may replace the circuit board but there is no guarantee it will work as the damage can be elsewhere (the platters, the actuator, the read/write heads).

jimjamcoolio

Not sure if what I have to say deserves a new thread so I'm gonna seek help here if you don't mind.

I've had this hard drive for a few years, I'm not sure how much storage it was advertised to have but it has 232gb.
The problem is, it does show up in Explorer and it does let me move files to and from it but sometimes I hear that dreaded clicking
sound from the drive and it 'disconnects'. I can never usually move 5gb without this happening

I just want a quick fix to get all my files off it onto my new TB drive.

any help, please?

riclad

Copy the most important files,first, folder by folder.
Eventually you,ll have them all copied.
IT should not be a problem, as long as each file is under 5gig.
When all the files are copied test em, eg play ,mp3s, avi, files, load documents
into word processor.

Br4tPr1nc3

I would suggest you first take the hard drive itself out of the external enclosure,
and then plug it into your computer directly and see if it is picked up then,
there is a chance that the board in the enclosure could be damaged.

Br4tPr1nc3

jimjamcoolio wrote: »

Not sure if what I have to say deserves a new thread so I'm gonna seek help here if you don't mind.

I've had this hard drive for a few years, I'm not sure how much storage it was advertised to have but it has 232gb.
The problem is, it does show up in Explorer and it does let me move files to and from it but sometimes I hear that dreaded clicking
sound from the drive and it 'disconnects'. I can never usually move 5gb without this happening

I just want a quick fix to get all my files off it onto my new TB drive.

any help, please?

You could try putting the hard drive into a plastic bag,
sealable preferably.
little sandwich bags are good, make sure whatever bag you put it in is completely sealed and for the most part airtight.

Now you place it in the freezer for about half hour to an hour.

then plug it into your computer and try getting your files off,
making the drive really cold may give you extra time before it heats up and expands a bit and starts clicking.

riclad

Are you saying the drive works ok,
after i copy x amount of files, say 4.9gig ,it stops working,
IF so the freeze trick won,t work ,for you.
Freeze trick is for drives that may be stuck, ie no copying possible.

yoyo

If the data on the drive is important for you to recover, it is worth noting that the freezer trick has the possibility of causing further issues, which could further hamper professional recovery of your data if needed. If you need the data recovered it is best seek professional services

Nick

BloodBath

I can bet that the drive is screwed. Was it on and doing anything when it was dropped. If it was spinning you can bet your ass that it has done major damage to the platter. The gap between the disk surface and the reader is only about 3 nanometers. It will have contacted the disk surface and caused pitting and loosened debris inside the drive which will result in more pitting and a completely destroyed platter surface in no time.

If you had important data then you should have had it backed up. In a an age of massively cheap reliable external storage solutions like ssd's and usb flash drive's there really is no excuse. I've accidentally washed and tumble dried usb drives and they still work.

These threads are almost a weekly occurrance so a sticky is probably in order.

The drive is probably a goner (outside of professional data recovery techniques). 3 feet onto a wooden floor is not a small drop. They shouldn't be dropped 3 inches let alone 3 feet.

The enclosure and circuit boards are vastly more robust than the moving components inside the drive. The chance of them being damaged and not the drive itself are tiny. So any suggestions you get regarding enclosure swaps or PCB swaps are very long shots.

Putting it in the freezer cannot fix mechanical damage, eg scraped platters, bent actuator arms etc. It was an old trick for when drives siezed up due to stiction, its not relevant for physical damage and modern hard-drives don't really suffer from stiction anymore.

Anybody quoting €350 is going to be doing basic software recovery methods which are unlikely to work with a dropped drive. A platter or component swap in a clean room usually costs thousands.

riclad

WHEN a drive is switched off ,or disconnected from a pc ,the heads are moved into a safe position, park mode,away from the drive platters.
You can take the drive, out of enclosure put in a caddy.
The enclosure pcb, or power,data cables could be damaged or loose.
SO its possible drive may work when placed in a caddy.

DO NOT touch the drive pcb, circuit board underneath drive.
Maybe put tape on the pcb to protect it.
open enclosure,see if data ,power cables ,are loose ,on either end,
The enclosure pcb,if broken, should not effect the drive,
ie it may still work in a new caddy.
sata caddy 3.5inch is 22 euro approx.

riclad

Search boards ie drive damaged sata caddy recover files
You,ll see loads of threads on it.

jimjamcoolio

Br4tPr1nc3 wrote: »

You could try putting the hard drive into a plastic bag,
sealable preferably.
little sandwich bags are good, make sure whatever bag you put it in is completely sealed and for the most part airtight.

Now you place it in the freezer for about half hour to an hour.

then plug it into your computer and try getting your files off,
making the drive really cold may give you extra time before it heats up and expands a bit and starts clicking.

I haven't touched the drive in about a week, kept it perfectly still the whole time and decided to just try plugging it in (without moving the drive :rolleyes:) before i tried your suggestion and by some miracle it worked! It moved the remaining 150gb without a problem

Unlimitedman

I first must advise that I know this company and they have a lot of expertise, a full clean room and advanced Data Recovery Processes. I believe that If they are quoting you the price of €350-€395 for a clicking drive then I would say its a decent and fair price. Recovering data from clicking drives is a specialist job and requires proper tools and expertise. Freezing in a bag and other DIY methods suggested is really bordering on science fiction and is highly unlikely to work. if the data is important enough then going to a reputable data recovery company before more damage is done is the strongly suggested option.

PropJoe10

The freezing trick is extremely unreliable and not advisable, especially if the data on the drive is critical. If you have critical info on the drive that must be retrieved at all costs, 350 isnt a bad price at all to be honest. If its just random shizzle on the drive, then try the freezer trick by all means, but I've hardly ever seen that work.