3 min read
After many years fumbling with Windows-based computers I have amassed quite a collection of External Hard Drives that worked one day, died the next day. Perhaps someone knowledgeable is such matters could give us all some pointers in what to do to revive these treasure troves of inaccessible data.
Thanks in advance,
Klard
Hi Top,
Interesting question.
1 External hard drives are usually pretty reliable, but like any electro-mechanical device they all have a finite lifespan, so sooner or later all will fail. It's just a question of time and usage. Usually the failure happens after long and reliable service, but sometimes they suffer from failing prematurely. This can be exacerbated by rough handling, by their nature external hard drives are very portable and sometimes get dropped, shaken up or otherwise suffer trauma, and this is often a cause of premature failure The hard drive will spin constantly whilst in use, at speeds (RPM) that would make your typical family car engine wince with pain! the bearings on which the hard drive spins at say 5000 to 7000 RPM or so cost just a few pennies. ( unlike the ones in a typical family car) So all in all its sometimes a wonder that they are as reliable and they are, and last as long as they do!
2 Things you can do to try and rescue important data.
a) if the data is really important and valuable then turning them over to a data recovery specialist is often the best way, but be warned a specialist laboratory that has the necessary environmentally clean room, and jigs to disassemble and then re-assemble, align the heads ( replacing them if necessary) and substitute PCB boards and with specialist trained staff to deal with it all does not come cheap ( think in terms of thousands rather than hundreds of pounds or dollars) however you could get lucky and find a firm local to you that can recover your data at a fraction of the usual sort of cost. I sure hope so.
2b) When trying to recovery data from damaged or inoperable hard drives it is important not to work on the actual drive itself, if at all possible, but rather to make a bit for bit image copy of the hard drive and use the copy for the data recovery attempt… however specialist equipment not usually available to the home user may be required to do this.
Unless you are very experienced at dismantling hard drives I would recommend that you confine your self to attempts in these areas
3a) Checking/replacing the USB or Firewire cable (if applicable)
3b) Replacing the PCB with an identical known working PCB (it must usually be identical for this to stand any chance of working)
3c) Trying the external hard drive in different computers including using a Linux box or live distro
3d) Running software such as the built in Windows chkdsk with the r switch
3e) Running the software repair tools from the hard drive manufacturer to see if this will do the trick, download from here:
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
further system and Drive tools available here:
https://techtalk.gfi.com/top-20-free-disk-tools-for-sysadmins/
3f) Removing the actual hard drive from its external caddy and trying a different caddy here's the sort of thing I have in mind:
I hope these give you some helpful ideas but if you need amplification on anything just post back
Regards
paws
Thanks for your quick response. Hard Drives are one of the weak links in computer technology, especially external HDs.
Do you folks have any personal preference on a Manufacturer based on your experience?
I'm not sure I'm the best guy to answer your question on personal preference for manufacturers…. I have been using various makes over the years ( nearly 30 years now!) and I don't seem to have any strong indications of any outstandingly good or outstandingly bad drives! from a particular manufacturer.
They all seem pretty much the same to me!
I guess to some folks this will sound like sacriledge… and I'm therefore about to don my "tin hat" waiting for furious arguments from our members who may have strong views one way or the other.
Here's a couple of links that may help
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/affordable-reliable-external-hard-drives/
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q1-2017/
Hope this helps
and may we all here,
thank you for your service
Regards
paws
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