I Need Help With an External Hard Drive!!

cleaningbiz · 17-02-09, 14:19

Hi can anyone help me retrieve information on my external hard drive? I didn't realise that these things can actually break or stop working and I have saved EVERYTHING on mine, it is going to take hours/days possibly weeks to recreate all the info and some of it will be lost FOREVER.

When I am connecting it to my computer nothing is happening there is only a little clicking noise coming from the external hard drive, I have tried it on 2 different computers but its just not working. If you can help please contact me asap. Many many thanks.

barryhynd · 17-02-09, 15:24

Hi cleaningbiz,

How does the hard drive connect to your computer via USB? Have you eliminated the USB cable as being the issue?

What make of hard drive is it?

amestaper · 17-02-09, 15:49

I know a friend who had a similar problem. He tried a new USB cable, then he removed the HD from the USB external casing, opened up his PC chassis and connected it to his motherboard via a SATA cable. Worked for him first time.

alanbold · 19-02-09, 18:04

Hi cleaning biz, The best software to use on a broken hard drive is spinrite. It does cost $89 but i have bought it and use it on my hard disks every 3 months and have used it to recover data from failed hard drives. When you look at the spinrite website it looks old but thats cause the Steve Gibson, the owner, writes his websites in machine code. It shouldnt put anyone off buying spinrite as Steve is a world expert on computer security and hard drives, he actually coined the word malware and if any SBFers are interested in IT security they should listen to Steves podcast - Security Now , look for it on itunes. Let me know if you need help. I am in Edinburgh so if you could get the drive to me I can run spinrite on it.
Alan

cleaningbiz · 19-02-09, 22:47

Thank you all so much for the help, I have now managed to get all the data back, can now sleep soundly!!! Thanks again guys.

Brian McIntosh · 20-02-09, 08:41

How did you manage it in the end?

cleaningbiz · 20-02-09, 08:47

My husband done it, I think he done what amestaper suggested with the cables. I now have 3 different back ups, just in case!

Brian McIntosh · 20-02-09, 09:20

Excellent. Just shows the value of regular backups and, with hard drives the price they are now, there should be no excuse not to back up regularly.