Recovering data from external hdd

KylieWyley

Hi,

[Please feel free to move this if I've posted in the wrong place]

I started noticing problems with my Western Digital External HDD a couple of weeks back. (Pic of the HDD here) Problems began when it stopped being detected by my laptop despite the power/activity light still flashing. I tried connecting it to a few machines but still no joy. After many repeated attempts to have it detected by different machines, the micro-usb port actually broke off the circuit board.

Since then I've opened the case and tried to solder the micro-usb port back on but this hasn't work. The drive itself is basically the same as an internal HDD but with an extra little board to receive power from a socket and to receive the micro-usb connection so I unclipped this board and beneath this is the regular SATA connections. I've hooked up the SATA data and SATA power connections to the motherboard on my desktop but the disks don't sound ilke they're spinning at all and the machine isn't picking it up.

Has anybody any ideas on how I might recover data from this drive?

Sup08

right click on my computer, select manage, then at the end of the console select disk management and see if the disk shows in the console, even as RAW. then it can be recoverd.
If it does not then you may need to goto a specialist to recover data and it can be very expensive, is the data imprtant or can it be replaced?

KylieWyley

I've tried that alright and it does not show up.

The data all personal - but there's a couple of years worth of photographs on there that haven't been backed up elsewhere [yeah, I know.. lesson learned ]

How expensive are we talking about for recovery by a specialist?

Sup08

Best to call, but I have heard it's charged by the amount of MB recovered.

http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.ie/home-user-recovery/

BTW, I have never used or tried any data recovery companies and therefore only linked this one as I read their profile and services and this is not a recommendation through experience. You can google others if you wish.

Skerries

if you are getting any life out of it I would download a Linux cd and boot from that as it is better than windows for picking up drives as I have done this loads of times where Windows doesn't see the drive but Linux does

beazee

Had problems with my HD Passport 500GB similar to yours. Unable to detect yet led still flashing. Which meant USB connection was fine.

First step was to check the disc condition using Crystal Disk Info (22 attributes reported by S.M.A.R.T.). Once that seemed OK a soft called DMDE 2.4.0 (free for home use) was recommended to mirror copy onto another disk and then run a sector-by-sector recovery. Recovery took 22 hrs with 89% success.

I heard the WD disks are encrypted by software embedded on the controller board. This actually might not be true for low-end WD Essentials as your own.
Try sourcing second hand case with controller board and micro-usb port intact first.

witnessmenow

I have had success with replacing the mainboard of a HDD with one of the same model on a dead drive before. It may be possible to go down this route.

EDIT:

Here is the thread where i talked about it

KylieWyley

Thanks for your suggestions folks.

I'll check these out and let you know how I get on.

KylieWyley

Skerries wrote: »

if you are getting any life out of it I would download a Linux cd and boot from that as it is better than windows for picking up drives as I have done this loads of times where Windows doesn't see the drive but Linux does

This was indeed my first port of call.

No success.

youllneverknow

Tech Solutions can do a back up up service.