Dead external hard drive

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by sam988, Feb 23, 2010.

  1. sam988

    sam988 Private E-2

    So six months ago i bought this external hard drive, 1.5TB capacity, from a brand named Leadership.

    I put 700GB of all my files, accumulated over years, on it. Didn't make any backup, i figured i'd do it after 1 year, when it got a bit older, because i didn't imagine it could fail so soon. Now the HD appears to have died without any previous notice; it was working perfectly just a few days ago. The symptons are that the PC doesn't recognize the HD, and it doesn't seem to be spinning, it just makes some quick noise every second, like it's trying to start spinning but doesn't.

    Please no one lesson me about my stupidity because i believe i already paid for it :cry



    Anyways, i just need to know one thing. Two, actually. The first is whether there's any other possible explanation for this other than that it's dead.


    The second is whether there's any risk to the data with the passing of time. I intend to keep this HD safe in my room until, in a few years, price for data recovery of 700GBs goes down considerably.
     
  2. risk_reversal

    risk_reversal MajorGeek

    Sorry to hear about your woes.

    In theory the data on the HD should be fine with no degradation.

    As regards the issue which you have described, HDs can go belly up suddenly or by way of giving some warning signs ie odd noises.

    I am guessing that your external enclosure is of the 3.5" variety and has an independent power brick. Perhaps the enclosure itself is in someway faulty or the power brick has an issue.

    The only way to be sure in what has failed is to remove the drive from the enclosure and either connect it to an IDE/SATA to USB2 connector or mount it in a pc as a secondary drive.

    Appreciate that this must be a bitter lesson for you but the golden rule to follow with valuable data is to have it backed up in at least 2 different locations.

    Good Luck
     
  3. collinsl

    collinsl MajorGeek

    I second what risk_reversal has said. At this stage placing the hard drive in your computer may be all that is needed to get it working again if the enclosure is broken.

    What make and model is the actual hard drive? Not just the enclosure but the drive that is in it.
     

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