Recover DATA from Dropped HDD

Sounds like it has died. These aren't as durable as we would like because they're still mechanical and the parts inside aren't made to be durable. the cases are designed to help cushion a fall, but they're still prone to malfunctioning after dropping. You may be able to remove the drive itself from the enclosure and plug it directly into your computer and pull the data off, but I don't give it a high probability of working.

Can't have nice things without somebody ruining it for you....I had over 700 GB of data on there.

If you need the DATA you can disassemble and try to hook it up as a sata drive, but this will probably void your warrantee. If the drive doesn't pop up in windows you can download Hirens boot disk (google) and try using some of the HDD recovery software, I get great results with recova software off that boot disk.

Unfortunately your HDD was the worst rated when testing falling impact... only a 5 foot drop killed it. That is horrible, I have an old milspec 8MB HDD (1980's) rated for 25G's of impact, I guess we can't have everything... it did weigh 20 pounds after all.

Fungi

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/test...

That was too bad but if you really need to recover the data, you may go for a data recovery software. I happen to know a free software which is designed to recover data, the operation is quite simple and it won't take much energy. Open the link here: http://download.cnet.com/iCare-Data-Recovery-Free/3000-...
I once used it and it is fairly useful but it cannot recover data larger than 1GB.

I can't even get into the hard drive at all, I'm think the arm that goes back and forth to read the disc is not reading properly....the computer recognizes when I plug the hard drive in but I can't get to the files because it doesn't pop up.

When a drive is dropped there are several scenarios that can happen ... Due to the beeping sound you describe I would suggest yours is option 2 or 3.

1. the drive's heads come into contact with the disk surfaces and this usually causes damage to the disk and the heads. Usually you will hear the motor spinning up followed by clicking noises. A data recovery company would attempt to recover this by replacing the heads from a new exact model hard drive. Then they attempt to copy off the used areas of the bad hard drive. During this process the heads often go bad again due to the damage on the disks. So this procedure may need to repeated until all used areas on the bad hard drive can be imaged off. This can take 2 days to 2 weeks in extreme cases. Professional data recovery is typically 800-1200 or more.

2. The motor that spins the disk becomes seized and the disk(s) must be transferred onto a new motor in a new drive and repeat the steps above. Cost for this is typically $1000-1400 or more . This is the worst case!!!

3. The heads come off the ramp where they sit when idle and they get stuck to the disks. This is called stiction. If the heads can be freed without damaging them or the disk, the recovery may be around 600-700. Or if the heads are damaged it likely falls in the 1st category.

As for chances of success …what really matters is how much damage has been done to the platters. If the drive was not run for long after the drop occurred or if it never spun again then the odds are good of little damage and a successful recovery 90%+ .. but the more time the damage had to snowball the worse the chance.

THESE PROCEDURES ARE NOT SOMETHING AN END-USER SHOULD ATTEMPT IF THEY WANT TO SEE THEIR DATA AGAIN. If you seriously require your data back, seek professional help, like ourselves www.memofixdatarecovery.com.


Hope that helps, David F

Yeah, and who has that kind of money...

Your best bet is to get a new hard drive. If the data is irretrievable, you could still be paying quite a bit depending how far and what kind of place you take it into. I was lucky and didn't have to pay anything for one of my dropped hard drives. The cheaper solution is to back up your data.

And tell your friends that you were told by a tech that hard drives are the worst things you can drop, they are anything except durable. I wouldn't let them touch your external if they're going to be klutzy about it. Store the hard drive in a stable place, preferably strapped somewhere as it's not even good to have a hard drive knocked around. It doesn't matter how much padding the inside of the case has, never drop a hard drive, ever! Sometimes the floor would be the ideal place to stick it, long as it won't be kicked around. Ideally having a desktop PC (and throwing in internal hard drives) are better as computer cases provide enough weight and are generally in an area where it doesn't get knocked around & why i have noticed that desktops have a longer life span then laptops/external hard drives do.

Anyway if you have tried recovery tools already chances are the drive is dead. If the hard drive is still under warranty i would just bring it back where you got it from and let them know it's not working. They might ask you if it's been dropped but as long as nothing looks broken or the case doesn't have dents/scratches on it they'll believe you that it's defective, long as you don't act nervous lol. If not there's normally a manufacture warranty, if it hasn't expired yet. If not, just get a new one and take extra care with it. Preventing a hard drive from falling isn't rocket science, even if you have to surround it with various things to keep it from falling then do that!