Portable External HDD problem

My external HDD has started clicking and wont be recognised by the pc. I know this is a long show but anyone know of a fix

So much data about to be lost otherwise!

Thanks

 

Sounds terminal to me.

You could try removing the drive from the enclosure and connecting it directly to the motherboard... but clicking and not being recognised doesn't sound good.


For future reference... please do back ups.

 

I have the hdd hooked up to my pc directly now (Sata Data & Power etc). The computer recognises its there. When i open my computer it is there, the name is right, the size/usage is right. I can open it and view the main directory but as soon as i try and copy something it does the click and starts saying not responding.

Any ideas?

is there anyway to take an image of it or anything along them lines. Im so close but so far

 

Wasn't their something about putting a hd in a bag and sticking it in the freezer ?

I think I read it in 'Custom pc' magazine, you would have to read up on it but it makes it work long enough to copy your data from it.

Found it...Custom pc did indeed resurrect a dead hard drive.

Place hd and sachet of silica gel (like you get in shoeboxes) in an antistatic bag, then place in 2 food bags sealing both bags.

Then leave bundle in freezer for a few hours or overnight. If drive stops you can repeat process.

 

I hope that works for the guy, because short of paying a frightening amount of money to a data recovery service, I think that drive is b0rked.


I never win any friends with this advice (as it's usually only listened to after people have lost data), but as you have just learned, having valuable data, or just irreplaceable data on one drive only is very risky.

My advice is, for every HDD you buy... buy another one (or just ensure you have space to back up), and a copy of Ghost or Acronis to back it up. Also, as soon as you can afford to, add redundancy to your system as well as back up (RAID1 or 5).

I know that doesn't help you now... but it will stop this from ever happening again.

Seriously, I hope the freezer trick works for you. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the edit erratum1 to tell me the details, i will certainly be trying it. Did they put it in an enclosure or directly attached once they took it out of the freezer?


Pookeyhead, I have learnt my lesson! Good advice to buy two HDD at the same time, because until i built my pc this dam drive was my largest one thats why i have lost everything! I like the idea of having RAID so i think im going to buy two new hard drives soon and a raid controller. Any recommendations?

I will let you know how the big freeze goes!

thanks for the replies guys

 

Had the same problem with my compact Western Digital portable HDD which only uses a USB cable for data transfer and power. Resolved the clicking by changing the USB connection - instead of the front external USB's on the case use the the USB's connected on the motherboard - more power output.

 

Get the snipper rifle and shot it in the head......Oops , sorry thought I was still on call of duty. But thats what I'd do to a misbehaving hard drive anyway!

 

Depends if you need RAID1 or RAID5. Best performance comes from a proper hardware card, but they're not cheap. The card in my server (see sig) performs very well, but wasn't cheap.

Look up the thread that started up around my server build (search for Server Build or search my username). That ran for ages, and there's tons of good advice from many people.

 

Quick update. I have tried it and although it worked slightly not long enough to copy anything. It warmed up and then started to die again. That was by directly connecting so i have put it back into the external enclosure and ill try it like that. that might be able to keep it cooler for longer.

 

Pack it in cool packs, ice, frozen peas whatever. Can't do any harm can it?

 

And throw the whole lot in to a cool box.

 

Wrapping it in a duvet will do the same if you don't have one

 

Exactly my plan, got a bag of ice so gonna put it in that while its plugged in. Ill update you all again haha hopefully this works. if not i wonder how much liquid nitrogen is

 

Failed again, I guess its time to give up. Its so strange how a single HDD can make my whole system unstable, explorer crashes and stuff. If anyone has any ideas ill try it. Never did i think i would be putting a hard drive in a freezer.

 

I hope you were joking. You were joking, right?

 

What's wrong with a backup solution to store data on multiple PCs?

It's just like creating your own manually adminstered cloud based NAS.... kinda

It'll cover for 99% of data loss, but of course not theft or fire.