External Hardrive failure

[JadeFox]

Hey all,

First off im sorry if i put this in the wrong place, but it is support i need.

I was getting help on another forum but then the help stopped coming, trying not to sound rude but im desperate for help!

To the point: My Western Digital 500gb external hardrive is not really working anymore and it has EVERYTHING i need on it.

It kind of died overnight as in it worked yesterday but not today. Anyway i plug it in, the light comes on, the harddrive is running (u can hear and feel it vibrating) when i plug the USB cable into the light (green ring) disappears and the drive goes very quiet...

Both my PC and my laptop recognize it and sometimes install new drivers for it to run however the icon for 'f: external drive' never appears and i cant access it yet i know its there and might be working.

How can i access it and get my files off?? i dont wanna format it cuz it has everything i want on it!!

At this point i broke the casing off to reveal the harddrive.

OK. so i have ripped the bugger out and and shoved him into my pc, he is a sata drive thank god now i wont have to go buy shit

Everytime i plug him in my comp it does some wierd stuff on start up and resets, when i plug him in when the pc has booted i get the blue screen of death, will i need some Western digital drivers? what will i need to access it as an internal drive? programs? drivers?

can i use a program to rip data off it? bearing in mind it will only cause my pc to crash again when i do plug the harddrive.

Is there software that can stop this? how about a different OS?

Please help its just been sat there fow weeks and i desperatley need it

[carl33p]

Hrmm, bad luck. Theres a possibility you may not be able to get your data. BUT, definetly keep trying a few other things.

1.
Turn your PC off. Install your 500GB SATA drive. If there are jumpers on the drive, then set them to "Cable Select" or "Slave".
Make sure you keep your original boot drive that has Windows installed.

Go into Bios. Go to Boot Priority list. Make sure your Windows drive is selected first.
If you can, remove the 500GB SATA from the boot list.

When Windows starts. Go into My Computer and the drive should be there.

2.
You could try buying a USB to SATA adapter and try your luck out.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812232002



In the future: Do NOT install components into your computer while it is powered.

[JadeFox]

On the hard drive it says 'Master/Slave jumper not required for SATA Jumpered pins 3 and 4 enable PUIS (Power Up In Standby)'

Having a wild guess here but u think it doesnt need a jumper.

after plugging it in i turn on the pc and load up BIOS,

in bios i see:

IDE Channel 0 Master [None]
IDE Channel 0 Slave [LITE-ON DVDRW] (my dvd drive)
IDE Channel 1 Master [TSScorpDVD-ROM] (my other dvd drive)
IDE Channel 1 Slave [None]
IDE Channel 1 Master [None]
IDE Channel 2 Master [None]
IDE Channel 3 Master [None]
IDE Channel 4 Master [WDC WD5000AAKS-22TMA...]
IDE Channel 5 Master ...

This was originally blank, there was nothing displayed here not even a [None], but after going into boot device and selecting Harddrive i could hear it starting up, it sounds like the motor MAYBE dieing i dont know.

But it eventually found a drive here and began loading XP, its starting loading the bit where it says WINDOWS XP and then the screen went blank and froze

now when i load up BIOS i get this

IDE Channel 4 Master [WDC WD5000AAKS-22TMA...]
IDE Channel 5 Master [WDC WD5000AAKS-00TMA...]

So now it looks like it is detecting something there, but i cant fully load up xp :/

by the way, i already have one Internal Western Digital 500GB drive
and the external which is now an internal is also 500GB so i think it is detecting them both.

thanks for getting me this far, anymore help?

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

IDE Channel 4 Master [WDC WD5000AAKS-22TMA...]
IDE Channel 5 Master [WDC WD5000AAKS-00TMA...]

So now it looks like it is detecting something there, but i cant fully load up xp :/

thanks for getting me this far, anymore help?

What do you mean by "can't fully load XP" =..? How far through is it going..? Is it getting to the *XP loading page with the blue bar*..? What happens if you don't have the (previously) external plugged in - does XP load properly then..?

[RandomNameHere]

I was having stupid problems with XP and my harddrives, installing XP and such.

I thought maybe it was the HDD, but then I tried it in another comp and it worked. One of my drives kept dissapearing on me, sometimes it would show up in windows and stuff, but then on another reboot it wouldn't be there. So I thought maybe it was my MOBO.

Well I tried a new PSU and it solved all my problems.

Wierd how a PSU can be the source for so many random problems (memory, BSOD, HDD not working, random reboots, etc).

[JadeFox]

yeah that the bit it gets stuck on, the Microsoft Windows xp with blue loading bar, after the screen goes blank and should load xp... it doesnt

if i have the faulty drive unplugged xp loads fine.

also i have tried it on my laptop before i took it apart, and just like my pc, it knew something was there becuase of that 'bing bong' noise when a new usb device is plugged in but nothing appeared, nothing happened.

[Keymaker]

Try booting in safe mode. If this works, copy all that data as quickly as possible and ditch the drive. You could also try using a SATA to USB adapter to plug the drive into another computer.

When you were using the drive. Did you always chose the safely remove hardware from the samll icon in the task bar? I always do this with USB drives. Even if the drive is not caching.

You can can give this a try.

[JadeFox]

Ok i tried booting in safe mode but it constantly crashes, nothing is working and i swear i can hear the motor dieing, at least the pc can recognize that a usb device has been plugged in but thats it.

Can someone post a link to a guide that shows taking apart an external HDD to look at the motor?

[soad1789]

Ugh, that sucks JadeFox, I've been there too. I've had quite a few hard drives with valuable data die on me, and what I usually do is put them in a ziplock freezer bag and put them in the freezer for a few hours, then take it out and quickly throw it into the PC and back up as much as possible. I would recommend doing this (I think you've already voided your warranty by taking the HDD out of its enclosure) and freezing it for a good 2 or 3 hours, then quickly putting it back in your PC and booting into XP and copying everything you can off of it. You can even leave it in the plastic bag with the connections facing the opening of the bag and putting an icepack on it while copying, however if you do this you must be EXTREMELY careful to not get it wet at all, and it should not be in the case-- as far away as your SATA and power cables can go is preferable. I'm always surprised when I hear people say this method doesn't work, it's worked for almost every dying HDD I've ever come across. Good luck and be careful if you choose to do this!

[JadeFox]

Ugh, that sucks JadeFox, I've been there too. I've had quite a few hard drives with valuable data die on me, and what I usually do is put them in a ziplock freezer bag and put them in the freezer for a few hours, then take it out and quickly throw it into the PC and back up as much as possible. I would recommend doing this (I think you've already voided your warranty by taking the HDD out of its enclosure) and freezing it for a good 2 or 3 hours, then quickly putting it back in your PC and booting into XP and copying everything you can off of it. You can even leave it in the plastic bag with the connections facing the opening of the bag and putting an icepack on it while copying, however if you do this you must be EXTREMELY careful to not get it wet at all, and it should not be in the case-- as far away as your SATA and power cables can go is preferable. I'm always surprised when I hear people say this method doesn't work, it's worked for almost every dying HDD I've ever come across. Good luck and be careful if you choose to do this!

What on earth? ...are you serious?

[J1mmy]

You can get the data of it by using Data Recovery software, it worked for me and my formatted HD....

[soad1789]

What on earth? ...are you serious?

http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/200...over-data.html

http://help.lockergnome.com/general/...pict43993.html

I kid you not. Freeze the drive then plug it in and back up your data. It works.

Just don't do this