External hard drive failure: halp!

April 22, 2007 1:32 PM

External hard drive failure: halp!

So, my fickle external drive has been acting strange lately. For a while, actually. There was a point in time where I knew that I might have to reboot it, turn it off and on, unplug it, etc. several times before my computer would recognize it--but it would still work. It would still work, I'd still use it, and I'd put off the backup until never.

So finally it seems to have 'died.' Usually, when I turn it on and the light is green, it immediately accesses and I can see the drive in explorer. When it's orange, it's...doing something. Well, now it's always orange. Every time I turn it on. The last time I turned it on and it was green, I was restarting, and the computer detected some errors in the file...structure (my lack of intimate hardware knowledge is showing right now)? It ran chkdsk and was going through it all, and boy was it tedious. Boy, was it taking a while. Boy, did my stupid self say, "well, fuck this, I'll just shut off the drive and redo this later, I've got stuff to do!"

And now it doesn't do a thang.

So I'm wondering: is there anyway I can probe this mofo? Is there a hardware solution? Something I can plug directly into it that will LEECH everything off? Come on people. I had like hundreds of gigs of stuff on there! Don't let this be a life's lesson for me. :x

posted by Lockeownzj00 to computers & internet (5 comments total)

I'm assuming this is a USB drive on Windows XP? The orange/green light means nothing to me, but does the behavior with the light stay consistent when the drive isn't plugged into the PC? What happens if you power the drive on first, and attach it to the PC second? Can you attach the drive to another computer? Can you take the drive out of the enclosure, and plug it into the IDE controller internally on your PC? It could be the enclosure having issues.
posted by stovenator at 1:56 PM on April 22, 2007

It *sounds* like it's not spinning up. Which is very very bad. ANd yeah, this may be a lesson to you.

Put your ear to the drive when you turn it on. It should click once or twice and then 'spin'. If it continually clicks, it ain't good.

The closest thing you might be able to do is this:

Open the drive case. Identify the drive manufacturer and model. See if you can buy a similar model (or contact the manufacturer directly).

There are only two real components here: a controller board and the actual sealed drive.

Take the new controller board and attach it to the old drive. Plug it in and see if it spins up.

Or spend $3k for a professional recovery service.
posted by filmgeek at 2:07 PM on April 22, 2007

Sometimes, you can temporarily coax a drive back to life by refrigerating it. Do this in a baggie, so it doesn't get damp -- squeeze all the air out you can, and if you have a vacuum sealer, that's even better. If you do use a vacuum sealer, remember that it won't cool off very fast, so leave it in the fridge a good couple hours.

If that brings it back to life, it won't live long, but it might be enough to get your most critical files off. I'd suggest having ice packs standing by... if the refrigerated drive spins up, get an ice pack on it right away to keep it as cool as possible, as long as possible. (again, separate it from possible dampness.) Copy your files in the order that you care about them; the clock is ticking.

BTW, never, never shut a drive off during chkdsk. It won't damage the disk any more than powering it off during other activity, but it's the best possible way to destroy your files.

Chances are, from the sound of it, that this will indeed be a life lesson.
posted by Malor at 2:31 PM on April 22, 2007

Second the refrigeration trick. Another possibility (slim, but I detect we're looking at razor's edge, grasping-at-straws kind of stuff here) is that the *drive* is OK, but the enclosure's gone batty. See if you can swap the internal drive into another enclosure and try that. Good luck!
posted by ZakDaddy at 2:35 PM on April 22, 2007

Before you refrigerate it, try turning it upside down.

But yeah, this is a life lesson. Hard drives should run perfectly at all times. At the first sign they're not, they need to be replaced, not coaxed along. And you do need to back up any data you care about not losing.
posted by flabdablet at 5:48 PM on April 22, 2007