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Dropped External Hard Drive, now it says its not partitioned. Any tips?

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  • 25-09-2008 9:29pm
    #1
    NotWormBoy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 620 ✭✭✭


    So, being the clever lad that I am, I dropped my external hard drive onto the ground there a few days ago. And when I plugged it into my machine again, it wouldn't work - not surprisingly says you.

    It didn't initially appear as a drive, when I plugged it in - but it did show up in device manager as a USB Storage Device with the model number attached to it, but no Drive Letter as it was before. It also showed up as disk 0 in disk management, but also as non-allocated. The option was there to create a new partition on it, which (I assume) would wipe everything that was on the drive in the first place.

    Then I rebooted the machine, but kept the external powered on. When Windows booted, it appeared as a drive now, but whenever I tried to get into it, it said its not formatted, giving the option to format.

    So it looks like I've damaged whatever part of the hd memory that held all that information about its drive and name and all that. I've no idea what thats called, but I'm sure someone does.

    Does anyone have any tips about how I might get it back to the way it was without having to return it or have it repaired professionally? I don't want to open it up in case it voids the warranty, but I may have lost the warranty (again, clever) so opening it up is still a possible option.

    All advice appreciated.


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    #2
    gamer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,227 ✭✭✭gamer


    YOU could try hd drive in sealed bag in freezer trick,if it works copy all important data off the drive to another hd,or open case install drive in a pc as a sata or ide drive,slave drive .YOU CAN buy a sata ide enclosure for 15 euro,cables ,data or power could be loose or broken, if data is important ,but not crucial gently open case ,it hd size is less than 300 its probably a 2.5 hd,remember sata hds use only one power unit.
    google /post here model no,eg everex 580 ,google specs to find out is it sata ,or ide ,2.5 or 3.5inch hd.
    say its a passport 250, you could buy another one to use as a case or buy a hd enclosure 25euro.YOU seal hd in a waterproof bag,leave in freezer for 2 hours,take out then plug into the pc.
    I find in safer to turn on ,pc, turn on the hd, then plug usb cable into the pc usb port,after windows has fully loaded.Change in temp ,sometimes bring hd,s back to life ,for a short time, so you need to copy files off the hd,as it may not work,next time you bootup pc.IF you bring it back to shop,you may get another hd, but they wont recover your data,unless its a big shop like peats
    with pc repair staff on hand.


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    #3
    biologikal
    Closed Accounts Posts: 371 ✭✭biologikal


    First priority, for me, would be to get any critical data off the drive asap. If you don't already have one, download a Linux LiveCD like Knoppix, burn it, and boot your PC with the disk in the CD drive, and the hard drive connected up. Sensible googling with terms like "knoppix" "data recovery", etc, will give you all the info you need to use the OS and get the data safe, if it's possible.


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    #4
    NotWormBoy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 620 ✭✭✭NotWormBoy


    biologikal wrote: »
    First priority, for me, would be to get any critical data off the drive asap. If you don't already have one, download a Linux LiveCD like Knoppix, burn it, and boot your PC with the disk in the CD drive, and the hard drive connected up. Sensible googling with terms like "knoppix" "data recovery", etc, will give you all the info you need to use the OS and get the data safe, if it's possible.

    Ah, there's nothing too critical on it, that I haven't got backed up elsewhere.

    Just that its going to be really awkward to replace all the stuff on it. Might boot into it from Ubuntu though alright.

    So the freezer bag trick is to:

    1. Seal in Waterproof bag and put into the freezer for 2 hours.
    2. Turn on PC.
    3. Take out of freezer and turn on HD.
    4. Plug HD into pc

    That it?

    Of course, if this trick is just a piss take, I'll make an awful tit out of myself. Hmmm, googling might be helpful here.


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    #5
    gamer
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,227 ✭✭✭gamer


    yeah thats it re freezer trick,if you need a new drive,aldi,have 500 meg usb drives ,79euro .,as of thursday.yesterday.I,M not sure re time duration ,google hard drive freezer trick.its at least 1hour.you r unlikely to harm the hd if you gently up it up make sure cables are tight ,examine pcb board for any cracks, if you can see the pcb.see www.aldi.ie thurdsay/specials.


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    #6
    NotWormBoy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 620 ✭✭✭NotWormBoy


    Cheers man appreciate the advice.


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