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Head Crash?

M

Mr. Glass

Newbie
Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forum, but there seem to be many of knowledgeable people here, so I'll give this question a shot:

This morning, as I was simultaneously writing data to and copying files from my external 3.5" HDD, it fell off of a 3 foot high table onto a carpeted floor.

I can hear the enclosure power on, but cannot hear the hard drive turn on or spin up.

I am still within my 5 year warranty with Seagate.

Any suggestions for my next move, data recovery wise?

Thanks!

-Glass
 
You can try putting the HDD in a freezer for a little bit. I have been told by people that this will work for a short period of time, but have never tried it.

Other then that you SOL unless you want to pay big bucks for data recovery and even then that might not get you anything.
 
If the drive's not spinning up it's likely that it's either died completely or a connection inside the enclosure has been jarred loose. If the HDD's dead, I agree with the above that data recovery is going to be expensive. If it's a broken connection you may be able to get it repaired.
 
SoulTerror said:
You can try putting the HDD in a freezer for a little bit. I have been told by people that this will work for a short period of time, but have never tried it.

Other then that you SOL unless you want to pay big bucks for data recovery and even then that might not get you anything.
Click to expand...

If you're gonna try putting it in the freezer, make sure you encase the HDD in a waterproof bag!
 
First off, how important is the data?

You have two ways of going about this. You can
A: Break the enclosure case and take out the drive. (That is if the drive is still good) You can go to BestBuy or Wal-Mart or even online and buy a USB to SATA/IDE adapter. Once done, you can plug the IDE/SATA drive into your PC VIA USB and retrieve your data.
The problem with this is, you void your warrianty.

If you take the drive to BestBuy they will do this exact same thing for $200 (I know I use to do it lol)
Now, if the drive is bad, you can get what is called bit data recovery, which is where the head quarters for Geek Squad (GS) takes each bit of data one by one and tries to restore it but this can cost from $300 - $5000. Yes, $5000.

B: The warrianty on the external does not cover accidental damage, therefore if it is physically cracked etc it will not be covered. If luckily it's not you can send the drive back and get a replacement but just be advised your data is going to them and who knows what happened with it (It should be fine but you never know)

If it were me: I'd eat the cost of it, break the case and buy an IDE/SATA adapter and see if it works. Worst case you can just return the adapter back to the store.

Links:
Here's a external 500GB hard drive
Newegg.com - Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 500GB USB 2.0 Silver Ultra-portable Hard Drive STAA500101

Here's another (this one is physically larger but double the space for the same price)
Western Digital - WD Elements 1TB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive - WDBAAU0010HBK-NESN

IDE/SATA adapter:
Buy.com - USB 2.0 to SATA IDE 2.5"" 3.5"" Hard Drive HDD Converter Cable

We use the same one at work.


Hope this helps.
 
I don't know why you kept saying "break" the case but what ever on that. Those kits are awesome! I have one, but he said the drive it not spinning up so that kit would be useless for this situation.
 
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