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how to repair an external hard drive that was dropped

by Dr. Willy Watsica MD Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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  1. Choose the external hard drive Since you're going to recover data from the external hard drive, run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and choose the exact drive where you ...
  2. Scan for lost data The software will start immediately to scan all over the selected drive for all lost data. ...
  3. Preview and recover data

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.

How to fix a corrupted external hard drive?

You can quickly fix the corrupted hard drive by formatting it. Here are the few steps you can do to format your external hard drive: Step 1: Connect the corrupted hard drive to the computer. Step 2: Right-click on the device and select the "Format" option from the context menu.

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.

Can dropping an external hard drive damage it?

Without sugar coating it, yes, dropping an external hard drive will most likely damage it. Even if it fell from a short distance into the fluffiest surface and there’s no visible exterior physical damage, internal components might have been dislodged. A damaged dropped external hard drive will “tell you” it got hurt.

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.

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Can you fix a dropped external hard drive?

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 do you do when you drop a 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.

Can a physically damaged hard drive be recovered?

Sadly, DIY options very rarely yield the results users desire and the task of recovering data from a physically damaged hard drive is one that will almost certainly require the drive be removed from its casing. As a result, its owner will most likely need to instruct a professional data recovery company.

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.

How much does it cost to get a hard drive fixed?

Hard Drive Repair Cost The total cost of replacing a hard drive is about $200. This price includes the cost of the hard drive, which is between $60 and $100. It also takes about two hours of labor, for an average cost of $120.

How do I know if my external hard drive is damaged?

Common symptoms of external hard drive failure include:Failure to Mount or Recognize.Excessively Loud Operation.Clicking, Whirring or Grinding Sounds.Disappearing Files or Folders.File Corruption Error Messages.Extremely Slow Drive Access Times.

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!

How fragile are external hard drives?

Because external hard drives contain moving parts, this makes them more susceptible to physical damage. If you factor in the portable nature of external hard drives, the chances of a physical fault like a head crash or motor failure occurring are higher.

Are HDD fragile?

The parts operate with incredible precision, so hard drives are rather fragile. Circuit boards, spindle motors, ball bearings -- any of these parts are susceptible to failure. The worst type of failure is known as a head crash.

Should I remove hard drive before recycling computer?

For this reason, it's important to remove and destroy your hard drive before recycling or donating your computer, but this isn't as easy as just smashing it with a hammer. Read on to find out how to destroy a hard drive and keep your data protected.

What to do if you drop a hard drive?

Even if you possess the knowledge about a hard drive’s anatomy, do not attempt to open it by yourself. Visit a certified data recovery center and seek assistance.

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.

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.

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.

How to recover data from external hard drive?

To start external hard drive recovery, you should firstly get Recoverit Data Recovery free downloaded and installed on your computer. After the installation, connect the external hard drive to your Windows computer and then follow the next steps to regain the lost data from an external hard drive.

What does 0 mean on a hard drive?

Notes: 0 means the drive letter of the external hard disk to be repaired. It can be also 1 or 2. As we can see, to learn how to repair an external hard drive is handy as it helps in avoiding unprecedented circumstances about your data.

What happens when you drop a laptop hard drive?

At the instant you drop your laptop or external hard drive, the device experiences an instantaneous moment of weightlessness. Then gravity does its work.

What happens if my hard drive is running?

If your hard drive is running when your laptop or external drive takes a tumble, the read/write heads could crash onto the surfaces of the platters. This is the one thing they are absolutely not supposed to do.

What is inside a hard drive?

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 ...

Can a hard drive be dropped?

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.

Does a laptop have an accelerometer?

Many laptops today have accelerometers inside them. These features, such as Apple’s Sudden Motion Sensor, send signals to the hard drive and warn it to take its heads away from of the platters if the laptop enters free fall. Hard drive manufacturers are also now building free fall sensors into the drives themselves.

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.

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.

Is a hard drive sensitive to external forces?

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. External hard drives, also known as portable hard drives, have physical moving parts.

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.

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.

Can a computer come into play without a hard drive?

A computer cannot come into play without a hard drive whirling. To correctly cooperate with a hard drive, or an external one, you must possess some necessary know-how skills for keeping a storage device healthy, and in turn, prolonging its life.

Will dropping a hard drive damage it?

Without sugar coating it, yes, dropping an external hard drive will most likely damage it. Even if it fell from a short distance into the fluffiest surface and there’s no visible exterior physical damage, internal components might have been dislodged.

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.

How do I recover or repair a dropped hard drive?

Ok, so a dropped hard drive will hint at what’s wrong with it. The moving parts (platter and spindle) make a familiar voice when spinning to access tracks of data. A problem can be detected when the HDD makes a different sound, showing the system is struggling to perform:

So, what do I do now?

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.

How to repair a corrupted external hard drive?

If you still cannot repair your corrupted external hard drive, let's think from another angle about recovering data from the corrupted disk using Tenorshare 4DDiG. It is a professional and easy to use tool and able to recover all kinds of data from not only corrupted external hard drive, but also raw/formatted/corrupted partition from laptop/PC. Here're how to do use it: 1 Install and launch the Tenorshare 4DDiG software. 2 On the main interface, you will see all the data types that you can recover. In this case, choose "All Data". 3 Choose your corrupted external hard drive in the "Connected Drives" section. 4 Click on the "Scan" button and Tenorshare 4DDiG will find back all the data on your corrupted external hard drive. 5 After the scan, preview and select your wanted files, click on the "Recover" to proceed. 6 Click "Browse" to define a location. Then Click the "Start Saving" button to save the recovered data.

How to repair a hard drive?

Here are the stepwise guide: Step 1: Head to the Windows search bar and type "CMD" to open it. Right-click on CMD and select the "Run as administrator" option from the context menu. Step 2. Now in the cmd, input chkdsk *:/h/r (where * points to the specific drive you want to repair) and hit "Enter".

How to fix a corrupted hard drive?

Here are the few steps you can do to format your external hard drive: Step 1: Connect the corrupted hard drive to the computer. Step 2: Right-click on the device and select the "Format" option from the context menu.

How to uninstall a device driver?

Step 3: You will be able to see all disks on your PC listed here. Right-click on the hard disk with the errors and click on the "Uninstall device" to uninstall the device drivers. Step 4: After doing so, restart your computer and connect the hard drive again.

How to fix external hard drive not readable?

If your external hard drive is not readable on your PC, try to connect it with another computer to check if the drive is working fine. If it is working on the other PC, then you need to repair the external hard drive by reinstalling the device drivers on your PC. To do so, follow the detailed steps below:

Why is my hard drive corrupted?

It can happen because of multiple reasons. Out of the many, there can be malware infection, an increasing number of bad sectors on the hard disk, or errors in system files.

How to stop a computer from being slow?

To prevent it, use a small piece of cloth and a dip of spirit cleaner to clean your PC.

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