Laptop won't recognise External Drive

G

godthe

Registered User
Messages
98
I've had an external hard drive for a couple of years and working ok.
The other day i attached it to my laptop and the laptop would not recognise it. There is a clicking sound coming from the drive. I tried it in another laptop and that would not recognise it either.
There are a lot of family photo's on the ext drive that i would like to get at. Is the drive broken and if so is there any way to fix it please.
Any help appreciated
 
Hello Godthe,

A clicking sound from a hard drive means there is a Mechanical Fault within the case, normally a head crashing or bad sectors. If this is the case, I am afraid their is very little one can do. Maybe you could try people like these:

http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/

These people basically take apart the hard drive in a clean room and try to build it back up again to recover the data.
Might be worth a try as I know how valauable photos are.
 
Get the drive manufacturer's hard disk diagnostic/drive fitness test software and run it on the drive. It may be necessary to physically install the drive inside a PC or laptop to do this depending on your machine(s)/BIOS/the drive test software (e.g. some tests may not be able to test USB connected drives - just IDE/SATA connected ones). The UBCD suite might also be of use. As mentioned in another thread freezing the hard drive (just the drive - not the enclosure) inside a plastic bag and then trying it again may help to temporarily revive it if it is failing - just for long enough to recover data etc. Google for more info on this and don't take my post here as authoritative or complete on the cryogenic rebirth approach.
 
Be warned if you're freezing it, you may only have minutes to copy everything off and after that it's all gone. It might be as well to have a script written to copy this stuff off. If you're not proficient at this, I'd get someone who is to help.
 
dem_syhp said:
Be warned if you're freezing it, you may only have minutes to copy everything off and after that it's all gone.
Click to expand...
Are you sure? Does freezing it affect the magnetised nature of the disk platters such that it erases data or something!?

I would run the drive tests as mentioned above first. I would also consider getting a similar drive and using a cloning tool like dd_rescue (search AAM for previous posts of mine on this tool and disk cloning in general) to see if the data can be recovered in part or full.
 

Nope, not sure, but that authorative source, google seems to imply it It comes up with links such as this. Quite a few people appear to have had success with freezing, but from the few I'd read people got between 5 minutes and 1 hour before it failed again.

I'd try other recovery methods as you suggested first....

I don't know, but I'd doubt it's anything to do with it changing the magnetic characteristics (unless we talking getting the cryo pumps out ...but lets stick with the freezer in the kitchen). But from the few I read it then had hardware issues where they just couldn't get it going again.

I've never tried it - but if I had a hard drive that failed, tried everything else, I'd give it a go....but I'd be prepared for only having it up for a few min and would make sure that it was externally to the pc - avoid any extra heat.
 
Ah - the drive failing again is not the same as total/permanent data loss which your original post seemed to imply.
 
try looking for it in disk management - right click on my computer.
Try like someone suggested in removing it from the casing and connecting it direct to the computer as a 2nd drive.
I had success this way using rstudio to get data off a clicking hard disk. Its not IBM/Hitatchi by any chance?
 
By the way - other than recovering your data check the manufacturer's website in case the drive is under warranty and if the drive (but not your data obviously) will be replaced by them free of charge (other than postage perhaps).
 
Thanks all for your replies.
The drive is a Medion and I have it for about 2 years so I would imagine that the warranty has run out.
The Medion website is also in German so I cant get any info there.
With regard to freezing will I need to take the drive out of the enclosure and put it into a plastic bag and then freeze it for a couple of hours
 
godthe said:
Thanks all for your replies.
The drive is a Medion and I have it for about 2 years so I would imagine that the warranty has run out.
Click to expand...
Medion is Aldi isn't it? They normally have a 3 year warranty as far as I know. There should be a support number on the box/unit or online.
The Medion website is also in German so I cant get any info there.
Click to expand...
What about the UK site or ?
With regard to freezing will I need to take the drive out of the enclosure and put it into a plastic bag and then freeze it for a couple of hours
Click to expand...
You'll need to Google for specific detailed instructions on how to do this. Don't do it if you don't know what you are doing.
 
Thanks Clubman for the sites.
I don't know how you get them as I googled aldi english and the sites did not show.
I have sent an email to their support so hoping to get a reply
Thanks again everyone
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register