External HD has stopped working, possible to retrieve data?

blobert

Hi there,

I have a 250Gb Buffalo Drivestation that has just stopped working today. The light was coming on and it would not read but now it is just not turning on at all.

Now its only a year and a half old so it's still in warranty but I don't want to loose the data on it. Is there any way of getting the information back from this drive or have I lost it all?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

blobert

I opened it up and it is an Enhanced IDE drive. I tried putting it into my Dell but this takes SATA drives so it will not work.

There is a vague burnt smell from the case but not from the drive itself so hopefully it is not damaged itself.

Any ideas on what to do next would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Ruu_Old

Maybe pick up another external enclosure (USB 2.0) for the IDE hard drive, they are about 20 europeans in Peats.

blobert

I tried it in another external enclosure which I'm 80% sure works and nothing, the drive does not seem to spin and there is a slightly burnt smell from it. It is also very hot to the touch after a minute or two of being plugged in.

Does this sound like it is goosed? I had 250Gb of stuff on this inluding entire music collection, a lot of it is quite important so I'll be quite angry if I cant get it up and running again. I suppose its my fault for keeping my stuff on a cheap external hard drive!

Any further advice would be much appreciated.

pickarooney

I'd try it in a PC with IDE cables next, to make sure it's not the interface that's bust. If that doesn't work, you'll need some pro solution I reckon

humbert

I'd one that was clicking for a while (btw clicking I now know means back everything up very very soon because it's on the verge of dying) then stopped working completely. I took a chance and bought a usb to ide cable and voila it spun up and mounted.

If you tried it in another enclosure and nothing happened, together with the heating up etc. I'd be less optimistic and getting data retrieved professionally sounds very expensive and isn't always possible so probably is a non-runner.

blobert

I wrote to Buffalo tech support yesterday but they have yet to reply, will try ringing them tmw.

I dont have access to a PC with IDE cables so that isn't an option, I could buy a usb to ide cable but I figure if it would not work in the other external enclosure then that will probably not do much. Is it worth a go?

Any other suggestions?

pickarooney

Ask some kind person on here to test it for you? I would gladly, but don't live locally.