Dropped external hard drive stopped working !

[Colin Port Images]

The hard drive spins up and then stops. I have took it out of its casing and connected direct to my pc with no luck. I know it's dead but just wondered if there is any way of getting the data from it ? Hope someone can help. Thanks. Col

 

[joesmith]

Unlikely that you will be able to get anything off of it yourself, but, depending on how badly damaged it is, a data recovery company may be able to get the data off of it for you, although they tend to cost quite a lot. Search up companies that offer this kind of service and get some quotes if the data is valuable to you.

 

[Colin Port Images]

Unlikely that you will be able to get anything off of it yourself, but, depending on how badly damaged it is, a data recovery company may be able to get the data off of it for you, although they tend to cost quite a lot. Search up companies that offer this kind of service and get some quotes if the data is valuable to you.

Thanks mate. It's a minefield with all the data recovery firms out there, if one could say "yes we can do it at x price" i would have something to think about. It's basically all my photos ! Cheers Col

 

[Steep]

Depends what the problem is, if the controller is gone and you can find the exact same drive elsewhere you could theoretically swap the boards over, or open it and swap the platters. I've never managed to open a hard drive without breaking something myself though.

 

[Colin Port Images]

Depends what the problem is, if the controller is gone and you can find the exact same drive elsewhere you could theoretically swap the boards over, or open it and swap the platters. I've never managed to open a hard drive without breaking something myself though.

Not sure if that helps or not mate haha !

 

[Stratman]

The chances of the fine tolerance mechanical bits surviving the drop, only for the electronics to somehow get damaged are microscopically slim to none.

 

[neil_g]

Depends what the problem is, if the controller is gone and you can find the exact same drive elsewhere you could theoretically swap the boards over, or open it and swap the platters. I've never managed to open a hard drive without breaking something myself though.

the controller you can do, technically the platters need a dust free environment.

you could try one of the the free data recovery programs and cross everything, but i suspect the only way youll get the data back is from a specialist company (hope you have a credit card with a high limit).

this is why you always have a backup to fall back to..

 

[Colin Port Images]

Thanks for your replies, there is one company that says £295, like I said if they can get the data back and this is the price I may have to bite the bullet ! Col

 

[Steep]

Or decide that the data isn't that important after all...

 

[Kasalic]

We use a company called East Anglian Data Recovery. They do a no fee diagnostics and have a 'no data recovered - no charge' guarantee.

Small company but we find the service is great and it's nice to be able to call and speak to the person working on your data.