Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Kevin Wood]

TB, may I ask a question on an assocoated subject please?
A couple of years ago, my son bought me a 1.5 TeraByte Western Digital external hard drive for my birthday, which was great for a while - all that capacity! Then it failed, still under warranty and WD replaced it with an upgrade to a 2 TB version. This one also failed, but out of warranty and it cannot be read to extract data to transfer to another medium.
My son has read that it might be possible to go into the drive and connect it via a SATA lead directly? I know nothing of this, but if it's possible, how do I/we do it and what are the likely chances of successfully retrieving data fom the drive?
Sorry to intrude on this topic, but it would be great to get what is at present an expensive doorstop back!

Ron.

If you open it up you'll find a SATA drive with a small controller card. No problem to connect the drive to a machine with a SATA controller and try to read the data. That will only work if the SATA controller is the bit that had failed. In my experience, it's normally the drive that dies, probably due to the fact that the case provides it little protection from shock,  unlike when it's bolted into the chassis of a PC.

[TheBoy]

TB, may I ask a question on an assocoated subject please?
A couple of years ago, my son bought me a 1.5 TeraByte Western Digital external hard drive for my birthday, which was great for a while - all that capacity! Then it failed, still under warranty and WD replaced it with an upgrade to a 2 TB version. This one also failed, but out of warranty and it cannot be read to extract data to transfer to another medium.
My son has read that it might be possible to go into the drive and connect it via a SATA lead directly? I know nothing of this, but if it's possible, how do I/we do it and what are the likely chances of successfully retrieving data fom the drive?
Sorry to intrude on this topic, but it would be great to get what is at present an expensive doorstop back!

Ron.

If it won't read via USB, its very unlikely it will read over SATA, as far more likely to be drive fault than a USB to Sata fault.  Sorry.

[TheBoy]

Ah, yes, precisely what Mr Wood says.  I should have read all posts before replying 


If the data is really that important, there are a good few companies than can recover it, for a cost.  If you can hear the drive spin up and stay spinning, you may find a selection of recovery tools can get data back.

[Bigron]

Thank you for your disappointing, though expected, comments gents - it was a triumph of optimism over realism on my part!
It has been a while since we last tried the drive, but if my memory served, it did make noises, part spinning up and part "clicking", as if it were trying to find something - but failing. Did that make sense?

Ron.

[TheBoy]

Thank you for your disappointing, though expected, comments gents - it was a triumph of optimism over realism on my part!
It has been a while since we last tried the drive, but if my memory served, it did make noises, part spinning up and part "clicking", as if it were trying to find something - but failing. Did that make sense?

Ron.

Perfect sense. Its breaked  .  If the data is worth £20k, might be worth looking around at the pros for data recovery

[zirk]

Thank you for your disappointing, though expected, comments gents - it was a triumph of optimism over realism on my part!
It has been a while since we last tried the drive, but if my memory served, it did make noises, part spinning up and part "clicking", as if it were trying to find something - but failing. Did that make sense?

Ron.

Is it 2.5" or 3.5" USB Drive, Ron.

[Bigron]

It is now a doorstop, Zirk!

Ron.

[TheBoy]

Thank you for your disappointing, though expected, comments gents - it was a triumph of optimism over realism on my part!
It has been a while since we last tried the drive, but if my memory served, it did make noises, part spinning up and part "clicking", as if it were trying to find something - but failing. Did that make sense?

Ron.

Is it 2.5" or 3.5" USB Drive, Ron.

If its out of warranty 2Tb, I'd suggest it was probably 3.5"

[zirk]

Thank you for your disappointing, though expected, comments gents - it was a triumph of optimism over realism on my part!
It has been a while since we last tried the drive, but if my memory served, it did make noises, part spinning up and part "clicking", as if it were trying to find something - but failing. Did that make sense?

Ron.

Is it 2.5" or 3.5" USB Drive, Ron.

If its out of warranty 2Tb, I'd suggest it was probably 3.5"

Think your probably right but they knocking out 1.5gb 2.5" a few years back, Ron said the 2gb was a free replacement. 

[zirk]

It is now a doorstop, Zirk!

Ron.

Yep I appreciate that, if it was a 2.5 I was going to suggest something.

[Bigron]

Please suggest away, I'm not sure what size it is as I haven't opened it up in a while.....

Ron.

[zirk]

PM sent Ron.