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how to repair a dropped external hard drive

by Tyrese Bayer Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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Repair Corrupted External Hard Drive with Windows Tools (No Formatting)

  • Step 1. DOWNLOAD EaseUS CleanGenius on your computer and complete the installation. Free Download
  • Step 2. Run the software. Click "Optimization", and then choose "File Showing" .
  • Step 3. Select the drive with a corrupted file system. Tick the "Check and fix file system error" option and click...

Part of a video titled Recovering data from dropped hard drives - YouTube
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So you drop or knock over a hard drive best bet. Take it in if you want even take it to a localMoreSo you drop or knock over a hard drive best bet. Take it in if you want even take it to a local repair shop. Drop hard drives should only be opened.

Full Answer

What should I do if my hard drive dropped?

A dropped hard drive could need its read/write heads replaced. Its platters might need burnishing to clear debris off of them. The spindle motor may have failed. Our professional hard drive recovery engineers may have to deal with some or all of these failure points in order to get your drive up and running.

How to recover files from a dropped external portable hard drive?

If your hard drive is kept in an enclosure, there are great chances that it’s the enclosure that corrupts, instead of the drive itself. You can connect the drive internally or with another USB enclosure to test it. If you need to retrieve the files stored on your dropped external portable hard drive, contact me.

How to fix an impaired external hard drive?

1 Step 1. Connect the impaired external hard drive to the PC. 2 Step 2. Right-click the device and select Format. 3 Step 3. Set a new file system - NTFS or FAT etc. to the drive and click OK to finish the process. More ...

What happens if you Drop Your external hard drive?

Some hard drives are more prone to being dropped than others. Laptops are frequently in danger of taking a tumble off your lap and landing on the floor. Your external hard drive can be knocked off the desk by an errant hand, pet cat, or child. And when that happens, no matter the cause, it can lead to data -and you- in deep trouble.

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Can you fix an external hard drive after it was dropped?

Any “DIY” or software methods fix the drive or recover your data. You won't be able to recover data on the external hard drive since the problem is physical issues. If your hard drive was dropped, the software will not recover it.

What to do when you drop your hard drive?

Unplug the drive immediately and contact a data recovery professional. The drive “whirrs.” A whirring sound can also indicate a spindle or head failure. It could mean that the read/write heads are in direct contact with the platters, which is obviously bad news.

How do I manually repair an external hard drive?

1. On the desktop, open This PC (My Computer) and select the desired external hard drive. Right-click it and select Properties -> Tools -> Click on Check. The scan will start, which should fix the external hard drive errors.

Can a hard drive break from dropping?

Hard drives that experience more severe shocks from being dropped from 2 to 4 feet onto a very hard surface can not only damage the bearing and or heads but also the platters can actually shift off center.

How fragile are external hard drives?

Fragile. Most if not all external hard drives need to be handled with care and could be considered very fragile. This is a major con when it comes to external hard drives because if you do not have a casing to protect it from bumps and shakes then you can unintentionally destroy your hard drive.

Is it possible to fix a hard drive?

Hard drive repair is possible, but they should NOT be reused after a recovery! Of course, HDDs can be repaired! However, a repaired HDD should not be reused, but rather, have its contents recovered immediately and then be discarded as it cannot be trusted to work into the future.

How can I recover data from a physically damaged external hard drive?

How to Recover Data from an External Hard Drive with Data Recovery SoftwareDownload and Install the Software.Connect and Select Your Hard Drive. Connect the external hard drive to your computer and launch Disk Drill. ... Scan for Deleted Data. ... Preview and Select Files for Recovery. ... Perform the Recovery.

How do I know if my hard drive is damaged?

Here are the most common hard drive failure signs:Overheating.Strange sounds.Corrupted data, files, and folders.Major slowdowns.Stuck spindle motor.Frequent error messages.System crashes.Blue Screen of Death.More items...•

How much does it cost to recover a hard drive?

If your broken hard drive needs advanced recovery, you should expect the average cost of data recovery to be between $700 – $2,000.

How much does it cost to recover a hard drive?

If your broken hard drive needs advanced recovery, you should expect the average cost of data recovery to be between $700 – $2,000.

Does removing hard drive remove all data?

If you remove a hard drive from your computer, the data will still be present on the hard drive. However, it will no longer be present in that computer.

Does smashing a hard drive work?

There are many more creative ways that you can destroy your hard drive such as setting it on fire, cutting it up with a saw or magnetizing it. However, simply scratching the hard drive disk and smashing it a bit with a hammer will get the job done!

Does Best Buy destroy hard drives?

There are numerous ways to destroy a hard drive from wiping it to demolishing it. Once the hard drive is removed, your local Best Buy can recycle the unit for you. Items with LCD screens do require a $10 fee for hazardous materials handling but in return we give you a $10 Best Buy gift card.

Why are my platters not spinning?

A very common issue we see with dropped drives is light media damage. The heads bump the platters for a moment, cause a light scratch.

Is Vahan a good place to repair a MacBook?

This place is great, i’ve been going here for three years Vahan, recovered my data from my hard drive , then he upgraded my Laptop MacBook Pro ( Two HD’s installed and upgraded ram), and today they repaired my MacBook it was running slow they switched out the data cable. Very Honest and Have great service. They’re better than the Mac Genius Bar . Affordable and they repair on time.

Is Five Star Data Recovery a good company?

Working with Five Star Data Recovery was a great experience. It’s never a fun day when you find that your data is in trouble…but the team at Five Star was very quick to answer questions on a weekend after hrs and then promptly got to work as soon as we dropped off our corrupt CFast card. The whole process was very clear, they communicated often and in detail and in the end were 100% successful in recovering everything we needed. Our footage was saved and it was top notch service along the way. The final invoice was exactly what he quoted at the beginning with no surprise costs. I 100% recommend Vahan and his team.

What happens if you drop a hard drive?

When you dropped your hard drive, it encounters problems related to the mechanical construction of the system, which in turn lead to loss of data, OS corruption, and other glitches. However, with the right instructions available to you, you can perform a clean dropped hard drive recovery .

How to recover a hard drive on a Mac?

Start the software by clicking its icon on the folder. The main window shows the file types that you can choose from. You can just choose the types that you want to recover. Click "Next". Step 2. You can now connect the dropped hard disk to the Mac (if it is external) or connect the internal HDD as an add-on to Mac.

What is the best software for dropping a hard drive?

The recommended software for such developments is iSkysoft Data Recovery for Mac (or iSkysoft Data Recovery for Windows ). It leads the race of the best recovery programs because of its unique features and qualifications. Let us see the "important" qualities that set it apart from others.

How does recoveryit work on Mac?

Recoverit (IS) for Mac takes a while to complete the scan depending on the size of the HDD. Once done, it will reveal the list of files that have a valid file structure and easy to recover. The software arranges the data according to the file structure. Therefore, it becomes easy for you to pick the right data.

Why is it important to take care of a hard drive?

As data is valuable, it is important to take care of the hard drive. However, if you are reading this section then probably you or your friends have a drive that hit the floor. The drive no longer functions, keeps beeping, spinning without accessing the data, and scraping. When you drop a HDD, the read/write heads bend, as show in the picture below.

Can you plug a damaged disk?

Most often, users plug their drive and try to run to check if the drive is functioning and the data is safe. However, one should never plug the damaged disk. The picture below shows you the stuck read/write head, bend to the parking ramp.

Is data recovery successful?

Data recovery may not be successful in all the situations. It is preferable to keep a backup of important files. Handling the hard drive in appropriate manner is always important.

What is dropped hard drive recovery?

Dropped hard drive recovery is a unique and highly specialized skill. Our cleanroom data recovery engineers have spent years and thousands of hours working on hard drives. Just about every brand and model of hard drive has come into our cleanroom at least once.

What Happens When I Drop My Hard Drive?

To understand how a dropped hard drive fails, it’s important to understand how a hard drive works. Inside your hard drive are thin, delicate disks with a magnetic coating. These are the drive’s data storage platters. They are like CDs, but smaller and denser. Laptop hard drives, which are the most prone to being dropped, have platters made out of glass. The hard drive’s spindle motor spins these platters at around 5,400 to 7,200 revolutions per minute.

How Do Gillware’s Dropped Hard Drive Recovery Services Work?

At Gillware Data Recovery, we offer free in-lab evaluations for all drop ped hard drive recovery scenarios. We even offer free inbound shipping for anyone living in the continental US to make data recovery as painless as possible.

What are the sectors on a hard drive?

The platters are divided into sectors. These are magnetically-charged pieces of the surface that contain the actual data on the hard drive. Small electrically-charged coils of copper wire mounted on long arms sweep across the radius of the platters as they spin. These are the magnetic read/write heads. These heads are kept away from the platters when the drive is not in use. A ramp guides them into their proper positions above the platters.

What happens when you drop a laptop?

At the instant you drop your laptop or external hard drive, the device experiences an instantaneous moment of weightlessness. Then gravity does its work. The higher the height your device falls from, the more speed it builds up. And then it hits the ground, and it stops—very quickly.

Can a hard drive fail if it falls hard?

This doesn’t stop the drive from failing if it falls hard enough. The heads can become damaged by a fall even if they’ve been tucked away. But it does reduce the chances of the platters containing your precious data becoming damaged.

Is there a volume configured for RAID?

Status of RAID: There Is No Volume Configured

What to do after dropping an external hard drive?

Ideally, if your external hard drive fell by accident, the best advice is to follow the same recommended procedure for helping victims involved in a car crash: avoid moving it around and leave it to professionals .

Why does my hard drive drop?

Usually, dropping an external hard drive happens when the device is still plugged and connected to its cable. So, if the spindle motor is not stuck, then most likely the USB cable and/port were damaged.

Why does my external hard drive scratch?

That’s because when you turn on a dropped external hard drive, it will prompt its head to read the data. If the read/write head or its actuator arm got misplaced, stuck, or bent during the accident, it might touch and scratch the platter, causing any data to be unrecoverable.

Can you beat yourself for dropping an external hard drive?

Don’t beat yourself too much for dropping your external hard drive. Even being really careful, hard drives have a short lifespan since their components wear out over time.

Is it bad to power up a hard drive?

But powering it up it’s not even as bad as trying to open the dropped hard drive yourself to fix it. Even if you know your way around the internal structure of an HD, you need a controlled environment to ensure that not even a speck of dust gets in.

Is it worth forcing a hard drive to work?

It’s not worth the risk of a severe data loss by forcing a dropped hard drive to work when you can have a free evaluation by highly trained experts.

Does salvagedata have a cleanroom?

That’s why SalvageData has a certified full-size cleanroom where our lab engineers perform data recovery from damaged or faulty hard drives.

How to recover data from external hard drive?

Since you're going to recover data from an external hard drive, you need to correctly connect the drive to your Windows computer. Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and choose the exact external drive where you lost data. Click Scan.

How to check if external hard drive is g?

Type chkdsk g:/f (if the external hard drive is drive g) and press Enter.

How to uninstall USB drive?

Click on "Disk drives", right-click on your hard drive that is not showing up in Windows, and choose "Uninstall device". (Make sure you have selected the correct USB device).

Why is my hard drive not opening?

Missing or corrupted system files are responsible for a hard drive with unusual symptoms. It usually occurs when there is a problem during the file save process. So when your hard drive seems to be damaged and you cannot open it, maybe you need to repair the crashed system files at first.

How to format an external drive?

Right-click the external drive or USB you intend to format and choose "Format".

How to open disk management in Windows 10?

Or, use an alternative way to open Disk Management in Windows 10/8.1/8/7: Press Windows + R keys, type diskmgmt.msc in the Run box, and hit Enter.

What to use to clean a hard drive?

You may use a small piece of cotton rag and a dip of alcohol to clean it by yourself, and a cotton bud is also a good choice for the inside areas.

What happens if you drop an external hard drive?

Dropping an external drive or hitting, or bumping it leads to the external hard drive failing. A jolt or drop can result in the liquid bearing seizing or more commonly the read/write heads suffer physical damage.

Why won't my external hard drive recover?

You won’t be able to recover data on the external hard drive since the problem is physical issues. If your hard drive was dropped, the software will not recover it. Attempting a software recovery often makes a recovery worse as you are running the drive in a failed state.

Why does my hard drive make a clicking noise?

If the head is trying to locate the data that it is searching for on the platters and it cannot find it, the arm will move back and forth across the platters. The head hits a stop every time it goes back and forth searching, which makes the clicking noise. At that point there you should get in touch with a data recovery specialist.

How sensitive are hard drives?

Hard drives are very sensitive to any form of external force. Often the drives I get have been dropped on the ground from a height of more than a few feet. This is especially true with external hard drives.

Can a hard drive shift off center?

Hard drives that experience more severe shocks from being dropped from over 2 feet on to a very hard surface can not only damage the bearing and or heads but also the platters can actually shift off center.

Western Digital My Passport Ultra

The Western Digital My Passport Ultra is a USB 3.0 portable storage device with capacities from 500 GB up to 5 TB.

4 Answers

Is this the ssd version or hard disc? If its the hard disc will it power up does it click? If it clicks you can make it work enough to recover data. This video may help

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