I just damaged my External HDD

S

Starguard

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Messages
332
I just dropped my desktop speaker on my External Harddrive, and now I can't get it to boot up anymore. :(

Each time I try, all it does is click three times and a red light comes on and starts blinking!!

Its a "Simpletech" 250GB model.

Is there anything that can be done to repair this? :confused:
 
sounds like a paperweight to me. you could try data recovery software - search the storage forum for good recs - but you'll be lucky to get anything.
 
damn, that sucks man.

you could try giving it a few light taps with a hammer to see if you can get it spinning.... either that or try the freezer method. At the very least, you might get it running long enough to get your data off of it.

Is it a larger drive (in the case) or a laptop drive?
 
dr.stevil said:
damn, that sucks man.

you could try giving it a few light taps with a hammer to see if you can get it spinning.... either that or try the freezer method. At the very least, you might get it running long enough to get your data off of it.

Is it a larger drive (in the case) or a laptop drive?
Click to expand...

How does the Freezer method work? Ive never heard of this before! :confused:
 
Starguard said:
How does the Freezer method work? Ive never heard of this before! :confused:
Click to expand...

put the drive in a ziploc bag and freeze the drive for a few hours (maybe throw it in before you go to work).

When you pull it out, quickly hook it up inside your PC (not in the enclosure) and boot it up. Freezing it shrinks some of the internal parts enough to allow it to spin freely again. It saved me a LOT of data a few years ago when my backup drive crashed/developed the click of death.

You'll probably have around a half hour (or less) to get as much data as you can off of it.

edit: look here
 
Thanks. Ill try freezing it tonight before I go to bed and see what happens in the morning :cool:
 
If you can, I'd say to open the enclosure to make sure all the connections are snug and possibly identify physical damage.
 
O.K. I took it out of the freezer after 24 hrs and plugged it in. It still clicks 3 times before stopping, but not as rapid as it did before. When I try and cycle it off, then on again, it quickly gives me an icon that last for about 2 seconds, then disappears. It's trying to boot itself up, but continues to fail.

Is there anything else I can try? :confused:
 
did you take it out of the enclosure? If not, take it out and hook it up directly to the IDE/SATA channel so it's connected directly to the motherboard (not usb)

it's possible that you might of just knocked a cable loose, or damaged the circuitry inside the enclosure.
 
I've got a steady icon now, Now the systems teling me that I need to Format the disk before I can continue. That I obviously can't do without destroying all of my files.

What should I do?
 
what does the icon look like? Is it in the system tray or my computer? Are you using USB? Or is it hooked up via the PATA/SATA channel on the mobo?

If your hooked directly up to the mobo, make sure the jumper on the HDD is set to 'CS'. If that doesn't fix it, then I'd try running some software that will restore the MBR on the drive (if it's not still clicking that is) since it sounds like it might of been corrupted.
 
if restoring the mbr doesn't work, a quick format that doesn't touch the data would at least allow you to run some data recovery tool, like GetDataBack.
 
Its not clicking anymore. Icon looks normal "just like it did before the HDD crashed" and its in the "My Computer" tray. Its an external HDD so I have it hooked to my USB.
 
disassemble the enclosure (it's probably using torx or allan screws) and take the drive out of it. It's a good possibility that the drive will be fine if you run it directly inside your desktop. I'd put money on the enclosures internal circuitry getting damaged when the speaker fell on it (you 'might' do even more harm to it if you keep using it over USB... or at the very least, will get in your way of getting your data off of it)


edit: is this the same enclosure? It shows you how to open it up

http://www.gearhack.com/myink/ViewP...FS-U25 160 GB Portable Hard Drive Disassembly
 
enginurd said:
if restoring the mbr doesn't work, a quick format that doesn't touch the data would at least allow you to run some data recovery tool, like GetDataBack.
Click to expand...

You don't need to restore the mbr, or try a (shudder) quick format. ZAR will see the drive as "raw", and still be able to copy off the files. ZAR is cheaper than GetDataBack too. The nightly discount will kick in in 13 hrs. I don't know how cheap it will be, but the weekend deal is usually $30.
 
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