They say your life flashes before your eyes before you (call up you) die. When I realized my hard drive was failing, information technology was a little like that. All I could call back of were the hundreds of photos I didn't have a backup of. I was adamant to bring them back and I succeeded; sort of.

If your hd bulldoze has failed, this guide will help you with the repair and information recovery. (If the device is fine, these five methods volition assist you get information off the hard bulldoze.) Are you looking for help with a failed solid state drive? It's best to turn to an skilful right away.

My Expressionless Hard Bulldoze Story

Several years ago, I experienced a hard drive failure. My laptop acted strangely. When the problems persisted after a reboot, I knew it was more than an overstretched RAM. I immediately started to back up recent files. About half an 60 minutes later, the hard bulldoze failed audibly and the laptop wouldn't boot anymore.

I had backups, but non of everything. Just weeks before my fill-in drive had reached chapters. To back up important work files, I had decided to delete my personal photos. Ironically, I had already purchased a new external drive, but I had not taken the fourth dimension to create a total fill-in. Now my photos were lost and I was devastated.

Over the next couple of weeks, I researched ways to recover the information and considered doing everything under the lord's day---and did most of it---to revive the old hard drive. This article is the result of that effort.

External Hard Drive? Cheque the Enclosure and Cables

When your external hard drive fails, it can do and then for all the same reasons an internal drive can fail. Sometimes, however, it'south non the drive that stops working, only a connection within the enclosure! And in that example, the drive is easy to revive.

Before you open up any hardware, exist sure to discharge your body'southward static electricity, i.e. ground yourself. Remove the difficult drive from its casing and utilize an IDE/SATA data cable and ability connector to install the drive internally on your desktop calculator. Alternatively, you can get an IDE/SATA to USB adapter or a new USB enclosure, and then you can hook the bulldoze up externally via USB.

SATA and IDE connector cabels.
Image Credit: ivonnewierink/DepositPhotos

The epitome above shows a SATA connector (front) and an IDE connector (back).

Once you re-connected the external drive to your computer, given the enclosure was the culprit, Windows should recognize it and assign a drive letter of the alphabet. The bulldoze should pop up under File Explorer > This PC. Yous tin can also check under Deejay drives in the Device Manager (press Windows + X to detect the option).

If the drive didn't show up anywhere, yous tin try to manually find your drive to further narrow downwards the issue; the process is described further down.

Internal Difficult Bulldoze? Check All Cable Connections

Sometimes, it's non the drive that failed, simply the concrete connectedness of cables that connect the drive with the computer'south motherboard. You can only wish that this is your problem! And then before you rent someone, make sure the data and power cables are firmly connected on both ends.

This is an image of a SATA hard disk drive with a Molex connector and SATA cable

To prevent hazards to your health, it's essential to plough off the estimator and unplug the power cord. Every bit mentioned above, you as well need to discharge your torso's static electricity, i.e. ground yourself before you lot get working on your computer's internals. And so open up up the case and brand sure all connections are OK.

Our guide on how to physically install an internal hard drive shows which connections to watch out for.

One time you take made sure the connections are OK, kicking the calculator once more. If y'all have a desktop computer, yous can leave the case open, but stay articulate of its interior.

Does Your Hard Drive Make Sounds?

As y'all are trying to get the hard drive to run, heed to the sound it is making. Is it completely dead? Or is it all the same spinning? What exactly does it sound like? Compare your sound to the list of hard drive sounds provided by Information Cent. This volition help you diagnose the type of damage.

Hard Disk Drive Repair
Prototype Credit: andreyuu/DepositPhotos

The impairment can be either internal or external. A clicking audio, for case, suggests the head may be malfunctioning, i.e. internal damage. A completely dead drive, on the other hand, could exist due to a faulty printed circuit board (PCB), which would exist external impairment.

Does Windows Recognize Your Difficult Drive?

Sometimes, you can hear your bulldoze spinning, only it never pops upwards. Or mayhap it's completely expressionless. To pinpoint the type of damage, try to manually cheque whether or not your figurer recognizes the drive.

Yous can do this via the BIOS in case it's the main hard drive and your calculator no longer boots. After you lot turn on the computer, enter the BIOS by pressing a trigger cardinal, which could be Del, Esc, F2, or F10, depending on the manufacturer.

Within the BIOS, navigate through the available menus to find where it lists which types of drives are connected to the figurer. You should find this information under the Advanced carte, just you might besides find it indirectly under Boot settings.

This image depicts a BIOS Boot Settings menu

If you have hooked up the drive to another computer, y'all don't need to admission the BIOS at all. In Windows, click the key combination Windows + R, which will launch the Run input window.

Type cmd into the field and striking Enter. This will open up the Command Prompt. Here type diskpart and striking Enter, to open the respective tool. In the diskpart window, type list volume and hit Enter to prove all drives connected to your figurer.

this image depicts a diskpart list volume menu from within the Windows Diskpart.exe executable

If Windows recognized your drive, meaning it appears under diskpart, just doesn't evidence upwardly as an attainable bulldoze, chances are Windows merely recognizes the PCB, but the bulldoze itself is damaged (internal harm). In other words, if the bulldoze is recognized in whatsoever shape or form, the PCB is most likely working and replacing it will not fix the hard drive!

Is the Printed Excursion Lath Broken?

Technically, the external PCB is relatively easy to replace. Notwithstanding, we strongly propose against swapping out the PCB yourself.Information technology's not as simple every bit finding a matching model.

Unless your hard bulldoze is ancient, the PCB and disk will use a unique microcode to communicate. If you replace a PCB of a bulldoze that requires this microcode to boot, you could permanently harm your information.

Hard Disk Drive with removed Printed Circuit Board
Paradigm Credit: firstblood/DepositPhotos

According to Datarecovery.com, specialists can "re-create, rewrite, or repair the micrcode using advanced equipment."

Witchcraft and Wizardry

When my hard drive failed, the PCB was fine; the drive was yet recognized and spinning, only it didn't show up in Windows, significant I could not access it, and no software recovery tool could help me, either.

And then I put my final hope into some of those obscure tricks that you'll discover floating around the internet, like shaking the bulldoze, hitting it onto a hard surface, exposing it to dry out rut in the oven, or sticking information technology in the freezer overnight. If you take any idea how a difficult drive works, then all of these methods should requite y'all the shivers!

Frozen Hard Disk Drive
Paradigm Credit: foxiedelmar/DepositPhotos

Well, I didn't dare to melt my bulldoze, but my suspicion was that the head was stuck. So I did shake it; to no avail. Since I could follow the reasoning, I besides wrapped my drive in an closed Ziploc dorsum and stuck it in the freezer overnight. The idea is that low temperatures cause metals to shrink and contract.

So if the head was stuck, the common cold might go it unstuck. Unfortunately, that didn't work either. And I probably acquired condensation to settle on the hard drive platter, which could have caused a lot more damage. I eventually gave up and stored the drive for a future in which I was hoping to exist able to afford professional data recovery.

Fill-in Strategy Communication

Should y'all succeed with one of the questionable methods above, notation that the fix will exist temporary! Then be prepared. Know exactly what you want to support and how. Have the right backup software to quickly copy your information and have plenty storage space available.

If you want to copy files manually, only copy one set of files at a fourth dimension! If you make the head bound back and forth between too many files by kicking off multiple copy-and-paste processes, you will slow downwardly the overall backup process and increment the likelihood of a fatal head crash.

Consult a Specialist for Professional Data Recovery

If you can afford professional aid or simply cannot afford to wait for a miracle, do consult a specialist. My recommendation is to go with a reputable visitor.

They should work with professional technicians and tools, be able to open your difficult drive in make clean rooms or under dust-gratis conditions, follow industry standards, and have solid credentials, as well every bit excellent recommendations. Subsequently all, y'all will trust them with your private data.

Kroll Ontrack, one of the nigh reputable companies in the market, offers a free consultation and cost evaluation.

Before yous pick a company, be sure you understand the conditions! Most accuse simply for looking at the drive and making a recommendation. They will accuse extra for actually attempting to recover the data. Some will charge a total recovery fee, even if they failed to recover the data.

Revive Your Drive

Diagnosing and fixing a broken difficult bulldoze is serious business. Do accept it seriously, merely also try to exclude some of the more simple-to-prepare culprits before you fork out hundreds of dollars to a specialist. The more than you know, the better. How far you go to diagnose and prepare your hard drive will depend on how important the data is for y'all.

Yous probably wonder what happened with my hard drive. Well, one fine 24-hour interval, when I was dissolving my flat, I decided to give information technology ane last gamble and then let get of information technology. More than than two years afterwards I had tried everything I dared to get it to work, again and again for weeks, I just plugged it in and it only worked.

I recovered all my information. The bulldoze actually continued to work for many more years. Call me lucky!

Even if you lot managed to repair your drive and recovered all your data, I would non trust this hard bulldoze again. Here's what you tin do with your erstwhile hard drive and here's what yous should know while buying a new difficult drive.

And on the subject of data recovery, it's a good idea to learn how to rescue your data from a malware-infected system.

Image credit: Expressionless HDD via Flickr

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