DROPPED WD 1TB HD, will no longer show up on PC

[Mr410techie]

Today, my 5yr old son told me he was playing in my office and knocked over my "silver box" on the table. I immediately figured he meant the external hard drive I was prepping to convert to an internal drive. The original USB connector broke (this is the first WD 1TB model with the flimsy connector) so I was just going to make it an internal drive instead of saying all hope is lost. I had already removed it from it's case and left the room to check on my 3mo old daughter when it fell. To try and diagnose it, I used a SATA/Ide cable and connected it to my laptop. It spins, and sounds as if it's trying to read the drive, but doesn't show up on the laptop. I have 5yrs of memories of there. Am I now looking at a paperweight, or can it be salvaged??? Help please!!!

 

[clutchc]

The external's HDD uses an IDE interface? If you have a desktop PC with a legacy IDE header on the MB, try it. I'm not too fond of IDE to SATA converting via cable. You may get lucky if you can connect it directly to an IDE PATA interface with a ribbon cable.

As a last resort, you could try the ol' freezer trick: http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2011/03/18/failing-hard-drives-and-the-freezer-technique-revisited/

 

[Mr410techie]

The external's HDD uses an IDE interface? If you have a desktop PC with a legacy IDE header on the MB, try it. I'm not too fond of IDE to SATA converting via cable. You may get lucky if you can connect it directly to an IDE PATA interface with a ribbon cable.

As a last resort, you could try the ol' freezer trick: http://www.dtidata.com/resourcecenter/2011/03/18/failing-hard-drives-and-the-freezer-technique-revisited/

Oh no, the external drive I was going to install in my old desktop is SATA. I have an IDE/SATA adapter I was using to connect it to my laptop to check functionality issues after the fall.

 

[spooky2th]

I would take the drive apart and see if you can turn the drive a little. Dropping the drive might have gotten the read arm and/or the spindle stuck.

 

[clutchc]

Your laptop had an external IDE port? That is just as surprising. LOL Either way, I wish you luck. I have my own many memories I have stored on my network HDD. It backs up to a flash drive every night. So I can sympathize with your possible loss.

If there are any PC places near you that specialize in HDD recovery, you might talk to them.

 

[Mr410techie]

I would take the drive apart and see if you can turn the drive a little. Dropping the drive might have gotten the read arm and/or the spindle stuck.

10-4. Now, how do I do that without FUBARing the whole thing??? Lol

 

[Mr410techie]

Your laptop had an external IDE port? That is just as surprising. LOL Either way, I wish you luck. I have my own many memories I have stored on my network HDD. It backs up to a flash drive every night. So I can sympathize with your possible loss.

If there are any PC places near you that specialize in HDD recovery, you might talk to them.

*sigh* No, the IDE/SATA adapter I use connects to the drive and then my laptop via a 2.0 USB. Essentially turning it into an external hard drive again. Lol

 

[spooky2th]

Just be really careful and do not get finger prints or anything else on the drive spindle when it it opened. Just carefully turn the drive a little and make sure everything is loose and mechanically OK inside then put it back together.

And if this fails, like clutchc says, take it to someone that can get the data off the drive spindle if you need it.

 

[Mr410techie]

Just be really careful and do not get finger prints or anything else on the drive spindle when it it opened. Just carefully turn the drive a little and make sure everything is loose and mechanically OK inside then put it back together.

And if this fails, like clutchc says, take it to someone that can get the data off the drive spindle if you need it.

10-4