External Hard Disk Problem

**Xavsnipe** · 05-06-08, 10:12 AM

I have a WD external HD where I keep all of my movies and music and pictures etc. so I have my computer HD completely clean.

The thing is, I dropped it last night and the thing is not recognized by my computer anymore. When I connect it, through USB, it makes a clicking sound a few times and is recognized as a disk drive by the computer but a drive is not assigned to the USB device. (I´ve tried on several computers now) The HD is a Western Digital WD600VE laptop 60 gb HD

Is there ANY WAY I can recover my information, ANY WAY I can access it at all?? It is priceless information, years and years of information. Is there anyone who is able to fix these kind of problems

**DeusInnomen** · 05-06-08, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by Xavsnipe

I have a WD external HD where I keep all of my movies and music and pictures etc. so I have my computer HD completely clean.

The thing is, I dropped it last night and the thing is not recognized by my computer anymore. When I connect it, through USB, it makes a clicking sound a few times and is recognized as a disk drive by the computer but a drive is not assigned to the USB device. (I´ve tried on several computers now) The HD is a Western Digital WD600VE laptop 60 gb HD

Is there ANY WAY I can recover my information, ANY WAY I can access it at all?? It is priceless information, years and years of information. Is there anyone who is able to fix these kind of problems

That sounds like the drive head got damaged, if it's clicking upon powering up. Short of having the necessary electronics skills to open up that drive and repair the drive head, you'll have to look into a data recovery service such as this one: http://www.datarecovery.net/for-individuals.html

I won't lie, it will be potentially expensive and probably in the neighborhood of a $1000 on average, but if it's just the drive head being damaged and the platters are intact, they should be able to recover all of your data.

**Xavsnipe** · 05-06-08, 10:19 AM

The information absolutely has no price, I don´t care the cost of recovering that data.

**DeusInnomen** · 05-06-08, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by Xavsnipe

The information absolutely has no price, I don´t care the cost of recovering that data.

I can respect that. Call up the service I linked and get a quote from them, unless anybody else out here has a tried-and-true reference.

**Xavsnipe** · 05-06-08, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by DeusInnomen

Originally Posted by Xavsnipe

The information absolutely has no price, I don´t care the cost of recovering that data.

I can respect that. Call up the service I linked and get a quote from them, unless anybody else out here has a tried-and-true reference.

Thanks brother, I truthfully appreciate your help.. If anyone else knows anything I could do I would appreciate your post as well.

**Gumby** · 05-06-08, 10:43 AM

if you are planning on taking it to data recovery, I would do nothing else at this point. Anything you try may actually cause data loss. Data recovery is, as Deus mentioned not cheap. But you would be amazed at the things those guys can do. I have seen these places get data off of drives that were melted in fires and pull at least partial data off of a drive that was shot with a 9mm. Its expensive, but if the data is worth it, they do a damn good job.

**w4jchosen** · 05-06-08, 10:54 AM

Originally Posted by Xavsnipe

When I connect it, through USB, it makes a clicking sound a few times and is recognized as a disk drive by the computer but a drive is not assigned to the USB device. (I´ve tried on several computers now) The HD is a Western Digital WD600VE laptop 60 gb HD

When you say it is recognized is it because you see it in the usb mass storage icon or are you seeing it through device manager "view devices by connection"?

**DeusInnomen** · 05-06-08, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by w4jchosen

Originally Posted by Xavsnipe

When I connect it, through USB, it makes a clicking sound a few times and is recognized as a disk drive by the computer but a drive is not assigned to the USB device. (I´ve tried on several computers now) The HD is a Western Digital WD600VE laptop 60 gb HD

When you say it is recognized is it because you see it in the usb mass storage icon or are you seeing it through device manager "view devices by connection"?

If I recall correctly, you'll see two devices appear for an external drive: the bus that the drive is attached to, followed by the drive itself. Likely he's seeing the bus appearing but not the drive itself.

**w4jchosen** · 05-06-08, 11:02 AM

Hook it up and right click on my computer and click manage. Once you've done that click on disk managment and see if you see it or not. It could be a drive letter issue. Just a thought. If it is a drive letter issue you can change the letter.