Tech: External hard drive grief

Subject: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: ThreeSheds
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 03:23 PM

Can anything be done to retrieve info from an external portable hard drive . My son has only had it since Christmas and has ammassed a huge collection of music on it . It lights up but no computor can see it I've tried swapping cables but no joy.Is it simply a basket case?

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: astro
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 07:50 PM

If it makes a thumping noise then you know it's trashed, or if there is no noise of it spinning up. You can go to a service to see if they can retrieve the data. It shouldn't cost a huge amount.
Astro

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: artbrooks
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 08:14 PM

Brand? I'd go to the manufacturer's web site for troubleshooting information before I did anything too drastic. I had (different) problems with my Seagate external drive, and resolved them fairly quickly with their on-line chat. Chat does tend to be easier to use than the telephone help, unless you are pretty good with Indian accents.

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: Amos
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 08:58 PM

You can take it to a service who secializes in data recovery and possibly recover all or most of the files.

If the disk itself is in an external enclosure, the error masy be in the enclosure, which has its own firmware. Try swapping it into another enclosure which is known to be good, if it is that kind.

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: GUEST,SenorChach
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 09:15 PM

Try checking compmgmt.msc - Diskmanagement and see if the partition still exists and if the computer can pick it up. If it is listed, but there is no drive letter, right click it and assign one. Sometimes USB drives conflict with one another. If it is in My Computer, but still not accessible try doing a checkdisk. Load up the command prompt and type in chkdsk (drive letter): /r... so if it was d it would be chkdsk d: /r

Hope this helps

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 10:01 PM

When was the last time it DID work? And has it been moved since to other machines? Any passwords involved? Any settings on the main machine telling it to NOT see other drives...(this can be done)

I have two...USB...and they work fine.

Oh...when a drive is disconnected, one is supposed to go to the "safely remove hardware" button and warn it first....I don't know what bad things can happen if you don't.

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 10:43 PM

Moving them when they are running is also something you should never do. Has it been abused in this way?

SRS

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: M.Ted
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 12:01 AM

my vote is with artbrooks--go to the mfg website and read up. Also google something like, "external drive, can't find" and such things--someone, somewhere, has had the same problem, and has a solution--a quick check shows someone with this problems was told to try DISK MANAGEMENT--another person mentions that iPod software seems to cause problems recognizing drives on USB--so the truth is out there--

For next time, tell your son to back up all his music to cds or dvds. You can store it as data rather than music, and it is way cheaper than backing up to another external drive, plus, you don't have to worry about the drive breaking down--

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: johnross
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 12:28 AM

Try a program called GetDataBack (www.runtime.org). It handles drives at the physical level, bypassing the operating system. It can often find data on drives that Windows can't see.

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 05:55 AM

External USB hard drives come in several different flavors. Only a few are actually meant to be "portable," although most are "moveable."

As an example only, at Western Digital you'll see a range of types.

Most "Portable" external USB hard drives are "built around" the common 2.5" hard drives used in laptops, since the internal drive hardware is already "hardened" to survive jolts and jostles of being transported. Aggressive head parking, "stiff" head transports, smaller disk diameters, shorter transport arms,"disk brakes" to stop the disk quickly when the drive is shut down, and lower disk rpm are features of the drive hardware. Drives of this kind show the same slower data speeds as laptop drives, but can handle being transported if they're not knocked around carelessly.In most such drives, illustrated by the "Passport" at the link, the drive and USB interface are essentially "molded into" a rigid plastic housing, and about the only way to "get into" the case is with a hacksaw.

Desktop external USB hard drives usually are built around the more common 3.5" drive mechanisms and often are just an "internal hard drive" stuffed into a case with a USB interface.

Based on my own experience, no 3.5" drive is transportable in any kind of external box, regardless of what the manufacturer/seller tells you; although if you're careful and never move it while the drive is spinning they're fairly "moveable." (You need to note that the disks may be still spinning for more than a minute after power is removed in most of these drives.)

Some "manufactured" external USB hard drives of this kind may have the same "molded in" construction as the true transportable; but others may only look like the case is "imepenetrable." If you look carefully there sometimes are fasteners that can be removed, or "snap together joints" that can be separated to get to the "innards" where you may find a rather ordinary "internal" desktop hard drive that can (sometimes) be unplugged from the USB interface and plugged into a new/different connection to the computer. Some of these may have the usual EIDE or SATA "circuits" attached to the drive, but it's possible that some makers put all of the drive electronics and USB interface into an "integrated" package.

It's also possible to "roll your own" external USB drive by putting a desktop drive in a "USB Case" so that the drive can look fairly nice and has the USB interface. With one of these cases, you can connect a drive to transfer data, then pull the drive out of the case and install it internally, which is a handy capability. A few of the "external USB hard drives" found on the market actually are just "internal desktop hard drives" in the same "external USB case" that the maker sells separately, so obviously you can replace the drive in one of these cases if it's the drive that fails.

If an external USB hard drive has stopped working, it's possible that the USB setup on the computer is at fault. This actually is "unlikely" with WinXP or later, but could happen. This possibility can be examined by unplugging one or more USB devices, rebooting, and plugging USB devices back in to see if "recognition" is happening normally.

Most externals will have one light that indicates that the USB port is providing power to the case, and a separate light that indicates that the drive is transferring data. In some it's a single light that comes on for power and "flickers" to show data movement. The "power" light only tells you that the USB interface is connected, and doesn't necessarily mean that the hard drive is "turned on." IF the USB interface is separate from the drive electronics, and IF it's the USB interface board inside the box that's failed, you may be able to extract a drive from "some boxes" and put it into another box, or in some cases "install it" directly into a computer.

IF the drive spins, and you can get a suitable connection to a computer, you may be able to recover some or all of the data using either an altered connection to the computer or a software "data recovery" program. WinXP Professional has a few tools in the "Recovery Console" that sometimes can access a drive that's" not connecting" but most people will not have installed the tools, running them is "an arcane art," and they are NOT PRESENT and cannot be installed in WinXP Home versions.

If the drive doesn't spin, there's very little you can do yourself. You may be able to send it to a hard drive recovery service, but the ones I've been able to find typically charge around $150 (US) to "look at" a drive to see if anything is recoverable, before telling you what it will cost to have any recoverable data burned to a CD/DVD and sent back to you. Most such services require a minimum of about 60 days to send anything back, if you're willing to pay for "express service," but may take a very long time for normal recoveries.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: ThreeSheds
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:17 AM

Thanks John for such a comprehensive answer it helps to put things in perspective

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:54 AM

Having had four or five hard drive failures in the past couple of years, I've done some poking about with whether "recovery" is feasible and/or cost-effective. Generally, it's not either, if you have a "real failure."

My sole conclusion is that it's best to have good enough back up to make it unnecessary. Only one of my hard drive failures actually lost any significant data, once I got sort of a system going.

That was when the backup drive failed while I was waiting for delivery of the replacement for the internal drive that it backed up.

Believe me, it can happen to you!!! - - or to anybody.

(I've lost more useful data from CDs that tested good at burn time but were "unreadable" at recovery time. Hard drives are the best backup - IMO, if only for the amount of space it takes to store all the CDs and the difficulty of finding which one has the data.)

John

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: EBarnacle
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 10:22 AM

Very basic question: Does the operation light go on during boot up?
If not, consider checking as to whether the power source is plugged in or operable. The problem may not be the drive at all.

Subject: RE: Tech: External hard drive grief
From: ThreeSheds
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 10:29 AM

yes it lights up and spins up as well