Recovering Data off broken external hard drive??

[tacoidentity]

I have an external hard drive that is a few years old. One day it just stopped working. I do not want to pay $300 to have geek squad recover the information. I have read on various websites that i can remove the drive from the case and install it directly into my desktop. The issue im having is that my new desktop uses the SATA and my external hard drive uses the ATA cable. My external hard drive has all of my college work, pictures from 5 years, videos, music, etc. Probably a total of almost 100gigs!!! Any recommendations would be great. I do not want to spend the money to have a pro do it but if that is my only option i understand.

Thanks,
Danny

[fat_basterd21]

You can buy an adapter for SATA-ATA I think. That may just be  a waste of money though. I fthe HD is damaged it may not work anyway.

I'm not sure about this, but I think taking it out of the external encloser will only help if the enclosure is bad. You can also buy a new enclosure.

[tacoidentity]

I heard about that too but couldnt find an enclosure for mine. My brother has an older computer so he may have the ATA hookups so i can try it for free. thanks

[fat_basterd21]

If you get it working enough to copy but have problems with errors you can use this program. Roadkills Unstapable Copier

http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=29

If there is bad sectors it will just skip it and recover what it can rather than error out.

[tacoidentity]

thanks, i may just order one of these and see if i can get it to work from that. What do you think?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232002

[fat_basterd21]

First of all I would try and plug it to your friends computer and make sure it is in workable condition.

Second... You can buy a new external enclosure for the same price or less. If the HD does still work it wont last very long without some sort of protection.

That kind of adapter is for shop use not constant use. if you were going to scrap the HD afterwards then no big deal I guess.

[tacoidentity]

yea my external HD is about 4 years old and i want to get one that no longer requires a power cord, so i would hook it up only to transfer files off of it and then scrap it. i can get one with more memory now for under $90 I found a cheaper one on ebay for 5 bucks with free shipping. that way i dont have to mess with my friends computer.

[fat_basterd21]

An alternative is to find such an adapter at Wal-Mart or Best Buy where you can return it if the HD doesn't work.


Its probably wishful thinking to think its the enclosure and not the HD malfuntioning. But I would spend $5 before $300 so go for it.

[tacoidentity]

ok, yea my girlfriends brother works at best buy, so i might be able to get a deal there. Thanks again.

[hillterry]

I have an external hard drive that is a few years old. One day it just stopped working. I do not want to pay $300 to have geek squad recover data from hard drive the information. I have read on various websites that i can remove the drive from the case and install it directly into my desktop. The issue im having is that my new desktop uses the SATA and my external hard drive uses the ATA cable. My external hard drive has all of my college work, pictures from 5 years, videos, music, etc. Probably a total of almost 100gigs!!! Any recommendations would be great. I do not want to spend the money to have a pro do it but if that is my only option i understand.

Thanks,
Danny

GO TO START-->CONTROL PANEL---->Performance and Maintenance--->Administrative Tools--->COMPUTER MANAGEMENT----->on your left side click on disk management. you will see your external hard drive just make it active "right click" hope that solves if not there are other advanced options let me know if the above answer does not solve the problem.
Hope that helps.

[Allan]

GO TO START-->CONTROL PANEL---->Performance and Maintenance--->Administrative Tools--->COMPUTER MANAGEMENT----->on your left side click on disk management. you will see your external hard drive just make it active "right click" hope that solves if not there are other advanced options let me know if the above answer does not solve the problem.
Hope that helps.

If the drive is dead it's dead. And you don't want to set an external drive as "active".

[Calum]

Also, this is a 4 year old thread...

[Allan]

Also, this is a 4 year old thread...

lol - good catch Calum