[Nobben #44]

So a few weeks ago my external HDD just stopped working. It simply wouldn't start after it had been disconnected normally from a computer.
I took it out of the casing and tried with a different one, then I plugged it directly into my motherboard and the PSU. Still nothing.

There are no weird sound and it has never been exposed to any damaging forces or fallen anywhere. It seems like the board has fried or something, but the disk itself should be in perfect condition.

Here is my question: What the fuck do I have to do to get my pictures back?

[Jibber Jabber]

I guess you could remove the platter and put it into a new drive.

[Lime]

Jibber Jabber, on 04 March 2013 - 08:20 PM, said:

I guess you could remove the platter and put it into a new drive.

Open hard drive surgery... Risky, but it just might not fuck up everything.

[Blade of grass]

Go to a company that fors data recovery, and get them to help you (agree that if nothing is recovered, it's free, or you pay a small amount).

[R-M-I]

LOL... Good luck turning it in at IBAS or something similar.. you'd EASILY be seeing a 2-3000$ pricetag on the recovery.

swapping the circuitry from a 100% identical drive MIGHT work.. But you also can manage to permanently fuck everything up

Does the drive spin up when you plug it in?
If it does it MIGHT be salvageable.

[Latsabb]

Yeah, the second you open it up, and expose the platter, you run a MASSIVE risk of that disk going right into the toilet. You really need to have a factory grade sterile room. But, as R-M-I said, if you had an identical unit when you dont mind destroying, you might be able to swap the platters into it without too much data corruption. Your odds of success, especially being that you have no prior experience, are amazingly small, however. If the data isnt going to be a large financial or emotional loss, write it off as a loss, and remember to use multiple backups on anything important. Cloud, external HDD, secondary HDD, RAID, thumbdrives, whatever. Or, better yet, a combination of several.

[R-M-I]

No....You do NOT remove the disks.... you ONLY replace the driver-board
This is NOT something I'd reccomend unless you know what you're doing though.. I've done it myself a few times. Sometimes it works others you end up with TWO dead disks instead of one..

IF it's still spinning but unresponsive..I have some tools at work that might POSSIBLY maybe if we're lucky "revive" it..

And ofcourse as Latsabb states.. Backup = Important!

[Nobben #44]

Nothing happends when I plug it in, it doesn't start or show up anywhere. And there's two years worth of work on it.

And backup is a little too late now ain't it?

[Latsabb]

Late, yes, but it usually takes a massive loss before people start with backups. Mine was a work laptop back in 2002, which contained the schematics of four Wal-Marts and a Sam's Club, as well as all the line tests for 14 stores. After spending three weeks driving through four states to get all the information again, I have always had everything in triplicate, and at least one in a remote location. (server, cloud, whatever)

Any chance that you have a multimeter? You might want to check if power is going through to it properly. If that checks out, then it is likely the controller or the mechanism that spins the drive.

[Nobben #44]

I might know someone who has. I'll check that out.
My dad knows a few computer savys that might be able to check it out as well.


And no, I will never open up to the disk itself. Might find a replacement board, but nothing other than that.

[Latsabb]

In case you are looking for a backup solution after this, I really have to say that the Transcend external HDD/SSD's are awesome. Transcend has software that sees when you plug it in, and it automatically backs up everything that you have specified it to. (For example, you tell it that it should backup the C:\Pics folder) So you just save everything to the backup folders, and plug in the external drive, and it automatically backs up.

Edit: Sorry, forgot a detail in my haste. You plug it in and press a little button on it. That is my bad.

This post has been edited by Latsabb: 05 March 2013 - 07:34 AM

[R-M-I]

So.. There's no spinning up what so ever? It's "dead"? Not a sound?

[Nobben #44]

Not a single sound. It's like it isn't even plugged in.