Data recovery from dropped external hard drive?

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eldorado

eldorado

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Oct 18, 2003
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Has anyone ever used a data recovery service? I hear they're horribly expensive...

Just dropped a 2tb hard drive full of documentaries I've accumulated through 12 years of teaching and personal interests. Will not be able to find a lot of them again

Yes, I know, I know, I should have....
 
eldorado said:
Has anyone ever used a data recovery service? I hear they're horribly expensive...

Just dropped a 2tb hard drive full of documentaries I've accumulated through 12 years of teaching and personal interests. Will not be able to find a lot of them again

Yes, I know, I know, I should have....
Click to expand...

I might be able to help you out with this. Just had the same thing at home on the missus' Apple. Plus a work mate's external just kicked the bucket too.

Yes, data recovery services are very, very expensive. Hideously so.

First up: Mac or PC?

And what happens when you try to mount the disk?
 
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PC.

The power LED lights up, but the hard drive only emits a low beep, of a few seconds duration, at regular intervals...it is not spinning.

It's not clicking, or emitting other signs of actual head/disk damage

It is not recognised by the PC
 

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What brand is the drive? And size?

Sounds mechanical to me, which can be worked around...
 
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grizzlym said:
What brand is the drive? And size?

Sounds mechanical to me, which can be worked around...
Click to expand...
It's an Iomega 3.5", 2tb

I've just been looking around, I reckon I'm looking at close to a grand, which I'm not going to do. Bugger it.
 
Ok, both of these fixes are things the IT guy at work has recommended for home issues:

It is possible to take an external drive apart and simply replace the disc into the mechanical hounsing of another drive - it's better if the drive is the same make/model. We did it a few weeks back on WD 1T that had given up the ghost. Worked perfectly. Of course, if the disk itself is damaged it won't help you.

I had an internal hard drive WD 500g, that ceased working. Wouldn't mount. Couldn't get it going in disk warrior or disk recovery 3, not even in target mode. Making loud clicking noises, basically the worst scenario. So, took the drive out, popped it into a static-free ziplock bag and froze the life out of the thing for a few days. Put it back in the computer, booted up fine, and had a half hour to get as much data off as I could of via firewire. Couldn't believe it would work but it did, last ditch sort of thing.

So, if you make up your mind you're not going down the professional route, and it's basically dead, try taking it apart and putting the disk in another drive. Lots about it on the net. Iomega's come apart too, I think.
 
Hard drives are super sensitive to any form of external force, and even the slightest bump can give them problems. If you've dropped your hard and it isn’t working, odds are, you should get in touch with a data recovery specialist immediately. And yes its expensive but important to have your data back, right?
 
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