How to recover data from a damaged external hard drive

Sir Hillington

Honorable
Jan 22, 2014
2
0
10,510
My external hard drive is damaged but still in working order, however the port to plug the cable in to connect it to a computer is damaged from the cable being bent while inside the port. The hard drive still spins up but makes a sound almost like a beep as though it's catching on something when spinning up.

No computer I've tried can read it although besides the damaged port it is in perfect condition, just a few years old. Is there anything I can do to try and salvage the data besides getting a caddy ?
 
Solution


LOL, in perfect condition? We're not looking at the body of a car in perfect condition, but the engine is not turning on. ;) Sorry, I could not resist.
Truthfully though, it is not in perfect condition, and also truthfully, we...


LOL, in perfect condition? We're not looking at the body of a car in perfect condition, but the engine is not turning on. ;) Sorry, I could not resist.
Truthfully though, it is not in perfect condition, and also truthfully, we do not know what condition it actually is in at this moment.
I agree with Martel1977; remove the hard drive from the external enclosure and connect it to a computer via a SATA data cable and SATA power cable (from your power supply in computer) and then turn on the computer and see it 1.) it is seen 1.) if you can access it from your o/s.
 
Solution

Sir Hillington

Honorable
Jan 22, 2014
2
0
10,510


Ah, thanks for that :) I ended up getting a caddy instead cause I found one for 20 bucks but thank you for the help :) I'll know what to do in future. I went with the caddy option instead because I would still like a working hard drive and the drive itself is fine, just the port was busted. Thank you for your help :)