Trying to save a dying external HDD

[dj_ultima_the_great]

Since this isn't exactly AMV-related, I figured I would post it in this forum. Then again, it could be related, considering that it's going to take my whole AMV collection and all of my own projects with it.

Basically, my external hard drive is dying. It is (was?) a Western Digital 500 GB model, and had I known about the issues in advance, of course I wouldn't have bought it. The damage is done now, though, and as my final efforts to fix things seem to have failed, I'm turning to you folks. I'm posting the issue here and not on some tech forum because you guys know me and when I say that I am an extreme novice in troubleshooting hardware, I know you'll take that into account in your replies. Simply put, please use plain English and assume I know nothing, because that's close enough to the truth.

The problem started about a month and a half ago or so when my external would occasionally decide to shut down while I was actively accessing information (such as playing .mp3s). It would turn back on when I tried to access it again, and then it would behave itself for the rest of the day. Eventually, it started cycling on and off repeatedly, switching every couple of seconds. Eventually, sometimes after a few minutes and sometimes as much as an hour or two, it would level out and stay on, but I couldn't access it. It didn't even appear in the list in My Computer. So, I would unplug it and try again. After a few false starts where it would Autoplay but not actually show what it was attempting to play, the Autoplay would work correctly and I could access it finally. Even this started to fail, though, but I had less than two weeks left of school, and I didn't want to buy a new external when I knew that I could get one on discount if I waited to go home. On the day before I went home, it was still being reasonable, if difficult, but somewhere between then and the first time I powered it up here at home to try and transfer the data to a new external, it's basically become inaccessible. It powers up, but it just cycles endlessly, and if it does level out, my laptop still never recognizes it.

So I did a little research and learned that the majority of externals just have problems with the casing (and the problems that many people had experienced were similar or the same to my own), and if I removed that and installed it into a desktop as a normal hard drive, it would likely work just fine. I've never done that before - both taken apart an external and installed an HDD into a tower, I mean - but I ordered the right cords, Googled some tutorials, and managed to do it flawlessly today.

However, the drive still cycles on and off repeatedly and I still can't access it. Please help if you have any advice at all. Just about all of my hobbies are either digital or can be digitized after the fact, and so I'm not kidding when I say that my life is on there.


- Jen

[Zarxrax]

I can't offer much advice because I don't know too much about these things, but if you can't even get your pc to recognize it, it sounds like it could be pretty serious. Worst case scenario, you may have to send it to a data recovery service, which can be seriously expensive. So, you might want to start thinking about how much your data is really worth.
I'm not really sure what data recovery people do, but I would assume they could just transfer the platters into a different drive.

[ngsilver]

if after installing the drive directly into the PC your still getting problems then it sounds like an physical drive problem rather then the controller. The issue now is if there is a problem with the drive head or a problem with the firmware/controller board built into the drive. If it's a drive head issue then there is the possibility that the head could damage your data just by being on. If it's a controller board issue then the fix isn't easy either.

One fix, and I don't exactly recommend doing it, is to freeze the drive. Stick it into a ziplock baggy real tight and make sure it's sealed. We don't want condensation getting on it. Then after it's frozen (stick it in the freezer) you would try to plug it back up while still frozen and see if the drive will come back. Doing this is a last ditch effort and if it works you should pull all data off immediately as this method will most likely destroy the drive. If it doesn't work, then you may loose all the data.

The safest thing to do is to see if a drive recovery company could recover the data. But as has been said, that's REALLY expensive. So in the end just how valuable is this data on this drive to you?

<channels Leo Laporte> I think now is a good time to think about off site backup. Have you tried carbonite today? </end>

[Castor Troy]

Seagate ftw.

[AaronAMV]

RIP

[purplepolecat]

I had an ancient external HD that was exhibiting very similar problems to yours. I managed to bring it back to life by replacing the "wall wart" power supply with a "lab bench" style power supply, increasing the voltage from the recommended 12v to around 13.5v, and turning the current limiter to maximum.

This gave it enough juice to start up reliably. [I guess the aging moving parts were drawing more current than they did when they were new, which caused a voltage drop, which caused the digital logic parts to not start up.] It would still shut off randomly, but I managed to get all the data off after a few attempts.

Exceeding the required voltage is a somewhat risky strategy, both in terms of damage to the HD and the possibility of starting a small fire, so should only be used as a last resort. I'd probably put it back in the original casing so there's no chance of damaging your PC.

The power supplies are very expensive, so you'd need to borrow one from a hobbyist or someone who works with electronics.

Good luck recovering your data ! I hope nothing too important is at stake.

[godix]

One fix, and I don't exactly recommend doing it, is to freeze the drive. Stick it into a ziplock baggy real tight and make sure it's sealed. We don't want condensation getting on it. Then after it's frozen (stick it in the freezer) you would try to plug it back up while still frozen and see if the drive will come back. Doing this is a last ditch effort and if it works you should pull all data off immediately as this method will most likely destroy the drive. If it doesn't work, then you may loose all the data.

This. It sounds stupid. It sounds like something techies would tell non-techies as a joke to see if they do it. But it actually does work sometimes. The thing is, it doesn't work all the time and it doesn't work all that long. So you may want to think about what is most important and plan the order to pull the data off, because you might not be able to get it all.

[Qyot27]

Seagate ftw.

x2. I have a little 30GB Seagate drive that's still working perfectly after close to 10 years (although Windows really* doesn't like it if I fire it up when the enclosure is cold), despite the constant vibration it gets from sitting on top of a subwoofer. It used to be the main system drive, now it holds a good chunk of my music collection.

*read: it grinds the OS response times to a near-halt until it warms up, and still isn't recognized - I have to turn it off and back on again for that. Ubuntu has zero problem with recognizing or using the drive when it's started cold, so I know that the problem is in Windows.

SSDs are a good choice too. But good luck finding a 500GB SSD that isn't exorbitantly expensive (and hybrid drives like the Momentus XT don't count). Heck, even the 120GB SSDs are pricey.

[ZephyrStar]

Unfortunately, the best thing to do would have been to back up the drive at the very first sign of trouble. Now that you're this far in, I would agree that it's either going to be the drive head or the board...and there's not much you can do for those. Do you have enough space on another drive to transfer the 500gb? If so I would not power the dying drive until you were ready to try and make a transfer. There are some programs out there that can recover dead drives, but generally only if the drive is physically working.

Freezing the drive sounds like a monumentally stupid idea to me. But as I've never done it, I can't comment on it's effectiveness.

But lesson learned I guess, always, always, always back up important things....I don't know how many times I've lost stuff and then gone "thank god" when I had a DVD-R of it laying around.

[Pwolf]

It's possible its just a bad board. unless you hear any clicking... like it spins up and then clicks, spins up and then clicks... If you take it to a recovery place, they can tell you exactly whats wrong (usually they do free diagnostics but beware of any hidden shipping fees, they may not give your drive back unless you pay them shipping "costs" if they have to mail it). If it's just a board issue, that shouldn't be too expensive, just the price of a hard drive of the same model plus labor. If it's a problem with the heads or other mechanical parts, then it gets pricey... upwards of $1000+

If you don't know what's wrong with the drive DO NOT FREEZE IT. Freezing the drive is only useful for specific mechanical issues. If it's the board, freezing the drive can potentially make a minor issue very very bad.