External hard drive suicide

[Lazarus]

Just got back from holiday and my EHD seems to have died in my absence, possibly due to lack of watering.
When I plug it into the wall, the power light flashes briefly then stays off. Connecting to the PC has no effect, restarting with it connected doesn't activate it. I've swapped the power and USB cables with others to no avail. Any ideas or do I need to take it to PC world for data recovery?

[Solauren]

Case around a normal hard drive, or a physically dedicated unit?

[Lazarus]

Not quite sure what you mean? The EHD is the 640GB version of this model:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=563

[Thunderfire]

Could be a defective casing. Try to take it out of its casing and connect it directly to you PC.

[Rin]

You wrote that you had tested other power cable but did you have another power brick to test with too?

500g WD Elements (grey enclosure, svideoish power connector) had problem with easily broken power bricks.

I had to open couple of 500g enclosures and if the internals are similar opening yours should be easy. (But voids any warranties.)

Hope the hdd itself is ok.

[Solauren]

Not quite sure what you mean? The EHD is the 640GB version of this model:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=563

Okay, now I know what you're dealing with, and can't offer any advice.

There are two types of external hard drive
#1 - A case you put any old hard drive in. Like say form your old computer so you can transfer files onto your new one, and then reformat the old HD and use it for storage, without opening the new computer and voiding the warranty.

Essentially, it'a a USB connection that connects to and powers a standard hard drive.
I've had those in the past. I gave up on them the day I knocked one off it's resting place and it exploded into hundreds of little pieces. The hard drive itself was fine. (My cat hid in the cub-board for 2 hours after that , however).


#2 - Purpose built like yours. The case + hard drive are pretty much the same piece of hardware / not meant to be seperated.

If you had Type 1, I'd say 'okay, then plug it into the guts of a PC', but with Type 2, you're screwed A.F.A.I.K

[Siege]

I recently encountered a similar problem with my 1TB WD external disk. In the end I had to send it back to the manufacturer, who replaced the adapter bit of the disk itself. It's fine now, and the data was still there, but I had to do without the disk for a week or so.

[Jaepheth]

You can crack open the casing (carefully!) to get the HDD out. Inside you'll find a regular IDE or SATA HDD. This will destroy the external casing.

Hook that up directly to your computer or purchase a new HDD enclosure. Usually it's the control circuitry that has gone bad and this will allow you to access the data just fine.

If the HDD is emitting a clicking sound it usually means the internal mechanics have malfunctioned. Try sealing the HDD in a plastic bag and stick it in the freezer. Once cold, try hooking it up and pull the data. If that doesn't do it, you can try striking the HDD sharply on the side (by hitting it on edge against a desk for example) which will unstick the armature and maybe get it working long enough to get the data.

If the HDD is not clicking (maybe not even spinning), you can try replacing the external board of the HDD itself with one from an exact same model, and then try hooking it up again.

If none of these work, you have run out of feasible do-it-yourself options and will need a professional data recovery service. ($1000+)

[Lazarus]

I've opened it up, but the HDD itself requires one of the newer connections (ie not the old ribbon type), of which I have two on my PC, both of which are used for a RAID array, and I can't take one of those out. I'm gonna head to a store and see if I can get a new transformer box cable, in the event that doesn't work, then the 'new case' option is a possibility, as is persuading a store to swap the files onto a new EHD for me.