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Author Topic: Hardrive recovery Options.  (Read 7465 times)

thewanderer

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Hardrive recovery Options.
« on: November 16, 2013, 11:08:27 pm »

The situation,, i have one of those small ext drives that runs off of computer power via USB. i think its some sort of Western Digital or WD something or other, about as big as a wallet.

anyway, i plugged it in yesterday to the computer and all that i got was the little light on the unit blinking.. i could hear stuff gong on as if it was powered, but no recognition by the computer.

Took to Best buy today to see if they had a recovery option.. they wanted a deposit of 250.  and basically nothing other than we will get the data but no guarantee of anteing other than you will spend AT least 250.

Does anyone have experience with other legit drive recovery companies...i don't know the extent of dmg, if any, computer just won't recognize,

Mac system.

Any thoughts, recommendation or prior experience would be sincerely appreciated

Sincerely

Kim
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PeterAit

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Re: Hardrive recovery Options.
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2013, 06:49:32 pm »

It's possible that the drive itself is OK but the electronics in the enclosure have gone out. To test this, buy a hard drive "dock" such as the BlacX made by Thermaltake. You plug this into your USB port and insert the bare hard drive into a slot (you will disassemble the old USB enclosure first to get the drive out). Turn it on and your computer may "see" the drive. Worth a try if the data are important.
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phcorrigan

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Re: Hardrive recovery Options.
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2013, 03:19:10 pm »

The situation,, i have one of those small ext drives that runs off of computer power via USB. i think its some sort of Western Digital or WD something or other, about as big as a wallet.

anyway, i plugged it in yesterday to the computer and all that i got was the little light on the unit blinking.. i could hear stuff gong on as if it was powered, but no recognition by the computer.

Took to Best buy today to see if they had a recovery option.. they wanted a deposit of 250.  and basically nothing other than we will get the data but no guarantee of anteing other than you will spend AT least 250.

Does anyone have experience with other legit drive recovery companies...i don't know the extent of dmg, if any, computer just won't recognize,

Mac system.

Any thoughts, recommendation or prior experience would be sincerely appreciated

Sincerely

Kim

First, take PeterAit's suggestion about the external drive doc and try the drive that way. If possible try it with another computer as well. Second, if you do need a data recovery service, use a reputable one such as Kroll Ontrack (www.krollontrack.com). Don't put your data in the hands of a $9.00 tech at a big box store.

Third, do you have backups? If so, before you do anything with the failed drive, restore your most current backup to a new drive and verify that you have recovered your data.

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Phil Indeblanc

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Re: Hardrive recovery Options.
« Reply #3 on: December 02, 2013, 11:41:32 pm »

if you hear it spinning, and working, yet not reading, a few more attempts can further damage it(ASSuming it is a harddrive failure taking place).
You might do as suggested by taking it out the enclosure, but first put it in the freezer for a little while/~2hrs. After this, If you do get it to be seen as a secondary drive in the drive reader, I would start copying files to a new drive(have one ready) asap.
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John S C

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Re: Hardrive recovery Options.
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2013, 12:18:01 pm »

I've had several drives fail over the years and in all cases it seems to be the case  electronics rather than the actual drive mechanism itself. (  In one case it was the power plug !).
I have a bare drive dock that takes both 2½" and 3½"  drives. Opening the case and removing the drive has given me access to the data via the dock. Fortunatly in all cases backups were available, or as in one case it was the backup drive that failed
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