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Recovering Data Off of Damaged External HDD
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sakabato24
World Warrior
So unfortunately I dropped my External HDD filled with 1TB of anime that I've collected over the years. I do not have any back-up files for them, so I'm in desperate need of trying to recover them.
I am open to either sending it to a professional and getting it done by them, or if anyone has any good suggestions on where I can get any recovery programs for free, it would be very appreciated. Thanks.
~Saka
I am open to either sending it to a professional and getting it done by them, or if anyone has any good suggestions on where I can get any recovery programs for free, it would be very appreciated. Thanks.
~Saka
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nght5tlkr
🇯🇵
sakabato24 wrote...
So unfortunately I dropped my External HDD filled with 1TB of anime that I've collected over the years. I do not have any back-up files for them, so I'm in desperate need of trying to recover them.I am open to either sending it to a professional and getting it done by them, or if anyone has any good suggestions on where I can get any recovery programs for free, it would be very appreciated. Thanks.
~Saka
Could you provide more details or perhaps pictures?
By external HDD, do you mean the portable or larger powered drive? The former is usually durable enough to survive a drop from desktop height whereas the latter tends to have enough casing between the drive and the enclosure to prevent direct damage--as long as they are not running at the time of the fall.
If it's just a port that's damaged (e.g. falling while a cable was connected), you can always remove the hard drive and buy a dock or enclosure to access the files.
If you've already tried accessing the disk but only hear clicking noises, you'll need to prepare your wallet...
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sakabato24
World Warrior
nght5tlkr wrote...
-snip- Forgot to mention that I know it has the clicking sound of doom, so I know it's the hardware itself.
I have a WD My Passport like this one :

Removed the casing since I know that the warranty is already expired and tried it without the casing, but to no avail. I am willing to try SATA to USB to see if that helps a little.
If anything though, I am willing to pay a lot to get these files recovered.
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I believe that with these passport drives the usb port is integrated onto the hdd controller. You can run a pasthrough on the sata contacts that are still on the pcb with some soldering, but that's irrelevant here since your main drive is moot. A sata to usb adapter will most likely not help in this situation unless you plan to use a disk imager that reads straight from the disk without having to go through a BIOS.
Though since I doubt you have one of those, you could always explore local computer shops, as sometimes they will have similar tools available.
I guess another question is, even though you hear the click, in windows disk management is the disk even seen? Does it show up as raw, unallocated, not initialized etc?
Though since I doubt you have one of those, you could always explore local computer shops, as sometimes they will have similar tools available.
I guess another question is, even though you hear the click, in windows disk management is the disk even seen? Does it show up as raw, unallocated, not initialized etc?
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sakabato24 wrote...
Rovencrone wrote...
-snip-Shows up as not initialized.
and I assume that if you try to initialize it (as MBR) it fails due to an I/O device error?
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sakabato24
World Warrior
Rovencrone wrote...
sakabato24 wrote...
Rovencrone wrote...
-snip-Shows up as not initialized.
and I assume that if you try to initialize it (as MBR) it fails due to an I/O device error?
Yes
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sakabato24 wrote...
Rovencrone wrote...
sakabato24 wrote...
Rovencrone wrote...
-snip-Shows up as not initialized.
and I assume that if you try to initialize it (as MBR) it fails due to an I/O device error?
Yes
At that point you're pretty much guaranteed to need to take it into a shop or other professional data recovery services. For now I would avoid powering on it at all until you decide what to do with it.
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sakabato24
World Warrior
Rovencrone wrote...
-snip-Guessed as much. Do you personally know any good services out there and how much about how much it will cost to get it fixed?
1
sakabato24 wrote...
Rovencrone wrote...
-snip-Guessed as much. Do you personally know any good services out there and how much about how much it will cost to get it fixed?
At our business we recommend that our customers go to Gillware, and the few that actually go through with such costly data recovery have had good success with them. I have seen their estimates go from anywhere starting at $600-800 and up depending on the severity.
https://gillware.com/
They do require you to ship the drive off to them in a provided package envelope, but afterwards they'll give you a quote and whether or not you want to proceed. They also have a system where they supposedly allow you to view your recovered data and decide whether or not it's satisfactory before paying, but I'm not too familiar with them business-model wise past that point.
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sakabato24
World Warrior
Rovencrone wrote...
-snip-Willing to try them out over risking any more data loss. Thanks for the help guys.
-1
I used to have the MBR spoiled once and the extHDD appeared as unknown drive which somehow the file system of the extHDD became unknown (which suggest that it can only be formatted).
What I did was I format the whole extHDD and retrieve the data after that.
By formatting, it's actually changing your file system, which is similar to changing the format of a file. However, in the process of formatting, the data is erased. But, it's not lost!!! When you delete something on your HDD, it's actually delete the address or pointer to the data, not the data itself unless you using secure delete or shredder.
I defrag my drive from time to time, so most of my data is in series or continuous, which may improve the performance of data recovery.
P/S: I retrieve almost 100% of my file, but I'm not guarantee that this is 100% working, coz i only had this problem once. And if you're using my method, make sure you have another drive that can accommodate the data you're going to get back and not overwrite the old extHDD. You did mention that the clicking sound which I think it's the actuator arm hitting the extHDD. Usually it'll affect the transfer speed. Hope this help.
Software that I used: PerfectDisk, Zero Assumption Recovery and EaseUS Partition Master
What I did was I format the whole extHDD and retrieve the data after that.
By formatting, it's actually changing your file system, which is similar to changing the format of a file. However, in the process of formatting, the data is erased. But, it's not lost!!! When you delete something on your HDD, it's actually delete the address or pointer to the data, not the data itself unless you using secure delete or shredder.
I defrag my drive from time to time, so most of my data is in series or continuous, which may improve the performance of data recovery.
P/S: I retrieve almost 100% of my file, but I'm not guarantee that this is 100% working, coz i only had this problem once. And if you're using my method, make sure you have another drive that can accommodate the data you're going to get back and not overwrite the old extHDD. You did mention that the clicking sound which I think it's the actuator arm hitting the extHDD. Usually it'll affect the transfer speed. Hope this help.
Software that I used: PerfectDisk, Zero Assumption Recovery and EaseUS Partition Master
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animefreak_usa
Child of Samael
And this is why i have Bd disk copies of my collection. first thing i learn about digital workflow is have a copy of the copy so at least you can recover.
But is it worth money for animu you can re dl? 4tb of animu speaking on my side.
But is it worth money for animu you can re dl? 4tb of animu speaking on my side.