Extracting data from a broken portable hard drive - please help

[Doggies7]

The small connection port on my portable hard drive with all of my music / shows etc on it has just broken and I can't plug the connecting USB cable into it anymore. I opened it up to try and push it back out ( it was loose and pushed inside the hard drive case) but it looks like its disconnected from the unit and is done.

I really, really don't want to lose all my stuff on the hard drive I was wondering if its possible for a computer repair shop to extract all the stuff I have on the hard drive and save it all onto another one even though the connector part is broken?

Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

 

[The Passenger]

pain in the ass man. i've had it happen to two of my hard drives and seen it happen to a few others.

with abit of luck (i've got about a 50% success record) once you crack open the case you can try align the usb connector against the part on the hard drive that it was previously connected to (it's pretty easy to locate), and hope that you get some connectivity.

the hard drives i had this happen to i was able to get the data off this way but it's still a pain in the ass. it's very sensitive and any bump around it can break the connection. both drives it took an entire day out of my life to get the data off them

i've had a couple of friends hard drives whom i couldn't get the connection to work. in this situation you'll be able to get the data. you'll just have to take it to a specialist store, and it depends on how much the data is worth to you as to whether you're willing to pay for it. my mates weren't.

i really don't understand why those hard drives require that shitty connector, but then hardware isn't my speciality.

 

[dav3]

Just buy a new case....

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=177_286&vk_sort=1
http://msy.com.au/default.jsp?category=123

PS: I assume you're talking about 2.5" drives here

 

[Black Flag]

if you can solder, solder on a new port or get someone to do it for you. shouldn't be a problem if it's just the port.

 

[StevenwellerHFC]

I feel your pain, i'll never have a 1TB portable HDD again, i'll always have 2x 500gb HDD use one as back up.

 

[SugarShane]

Piss easy as long as the drive is fine. Crack the case open and get rid of it, it's useless now. Get the HDD out of it and put it in a new case/caddy. Simples.