External Hard drive:MAJOR PROBLEM!!!!!!

Fol20

Ok so i have/had a external hard drive.Its a 160gig seagate momentus 5400.3.I believe its packed up on me as its making weird noises and my pc isnt detecting it.I tried the 'freezer theory' but that didnt work.This hard drive was full and luck would have that it packed in on me a week or 2 before i was gonna buy a second larger external hdd.I dont really care about the hdd anymore but i want to get the data back.Does anyone know of someone local in cork or even yourself that could do it for a cheap price to just recover the data nothing more nothing less possibly someone who is not professionally doing it for a few reasons if you know what i mean.I have some luck with hardware,pretty much all my hardware has broken down on me at some stage or another but none of them has affected me as much as this will if i cant get this data back....pretty much everything that i have used a pc for for the past 3 years of my life is on it and i have no back ups.Im freaking out at the moment because of this and im hoping you know someone that could do it on the cheap just to recover the data and not the hard drive...

keen

If the hard drive is physically damaged to the extent that you can't get any PC to dectect it then I wouldn't say you'd get that data back for a cheap price.

Don't know of any companies in Cork but there's a fair few you can send the drive to but their not cheap, talking in the hundreds here.

yoyo

Fol20 wrote: »

Ok so i have/had a external hard drive.Its a 160gig seagate momentus 5400.3.I believe its packed up on me as its making weird noises and my pc isnt detecting it.I tried the 'freezer theory' but that didnt work.This hard drive was full and luck would have that it packed in on me a week or 2 before i was gonna buy a second larger external hdd.I dont really care about the hdd anymore but i want to get the data back.Does anyone know of someone local in cork or even yourself that could do it for a cheap price to just recover the data nothing more nothing less possibly someone who is not professionally doing it for a few reasons if you know what i mean.I have some luck with hardware,pretty much all my hardware has broken down on me at some stage or another but none of them has affected me as much as this will if i cant get this data back....pretty much everything that i have used a pc for for the past 3 years of my life is on it and i have no back ups.Im freaking out at the moment because of this and im hoping you know someone that could do it on the cheap just to recover the data and not the hard drive...

Try taking the drive out of its casing and mounting the drive itself in a computer and see if its detected (If its a SATA 2.5" drive it will share same connector as pc SATA afaik), if its a PATA interface you'll need to borrow a external casing to do this in a computer, note that taking the drive out of its casing will void warrenty but will give you more a chance to get data back if you get me, also dont try the freezer trick again as it should only be used as a last resort, it could also cause the drive to become more damaged

Nick

MunsterCycling

yoyo wrote: »

Try taking the drive out of its casing and mounting the drive itself in a computer and see if its detected (If its a SATA 2.5" drive it will share same connector as pc SATA afaik), if its a PATA interface you'll need to borrow a external casing to do this in a computer, note that taking the drive out of its casing will void warrenty but will give you more a chance to get data back if you get me, also dont try the freezer trick again as it should only be used as a last resort, it could also cause the drive to become more damaged

Nick

Why the need for an external casing for a PATA drive? Most boards still have at least one IDE connector.

MC

SATA connection is the same for 2.5" drives

yoyo

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Why the need for an external casing for a PATA drive? Most boards still have at least one IDE connector.

MC

SATA connection is the same for 2.5" drives

I was under the impression from upgrading laptops PATA 2.5" drives use a different connector for data/power than desktop PATA drives,

Nick

MunsterCycling

Ah yes...! a 2.5 to 3.5 ide convertor would then be required but seeing as this is an external more than likely a 3.5 IDE


MC

yoyo

MunsterCycling wrote: »

Ah yes...! a 2.5 to 3.5 ide convertor would then be required but seeing as this is an external more than likely a 3.5 IDE


MC

My bad I didnt explain that clearly, meant a external case supporting 2.5" drives, my bad :$

Nick

MunsterCycling

Oh how it pays to google before you leap... the drive is a 2.5" SATA... lol

KatCookie

i know this sounds quite stupid to say, but try connect it to a different computer..
it would only take you 2 minutes to see if its working, and wouldnt cost anything.

TommyGun

also try a different usb cable, they get damaged over time.

TommyGun

hard drives make different sounds clicks. if you are getting a click...swwosh..click repeating, the hdd may not be getting enough power from the usb cable. describe the hdd noise ...

Anti

Guys, i highly doubt thats going to help. The hdd is already making noises. The best bet is trying to connect it internally, if that fails your talking alot of money to get the data back. If you can get it detected in windows there is a program out there that can get you back someof the data, but all the files names will be lost and some of it will be corrupted.

Dvd's are cheap these days, so is online storage. Would be no harm investing in either or both. All my data i keep on 2 ftp's 2 memory keys and an external drive. Just to be safe. Obviously the data isn't that much just under 4gb. Buts its stuff i cant afford to loose.

Scram

I had a hard drive fail on me a few years ago where i lost source code of 2 programs i working on and i mean the only copies i had (yes it was dumb) but the drive wasnt that old and i assummed it would last for a good while. I tried everything top get the drive to work;

1) i read somewhere about putting it in a freezer! lol that didnt work

Needless to say i thought recovering the data was posable but was told that it was very expensive and been broke at the time i hadnt apenny. Dam did i learn
to make backups the hard way it took a while to get over that needless to say. I eventually started to rewrite one of the programs from scratch and it turned out better in the end the other program which was more vaulable to me i let it go in the end.

Sorry i know thats of no help to you but just thought id share that.

Fol20

i honestly dont care if all of the files have no names...at least id have the file like...i did back up my files at one stage on dvd but that just took too long...if i can get the data back i have learned from my experience and will keep my data on 2 hdd in future.Hopefully a friend of a friend maybe able to fix it...