left.. Seagate and WD.

My Seagate 2 TB external hard disk just died (a slower death so I was able to get some critical files off).

and I replaced it with a 4TB WD passport.

I tend to run backups routinely to my RAID 8+2+2 storage server (which has lost 1 out of the 12 drives so far).

I don't have (but should) some sort of offsite backup (in case of fire or theft or earthquake).

Full disclosure, I used to work for Seagate and I've been in computer storage for most of my now long career in computer science. I was Chief Architect at Seagate.

Hard drives die. Run RAID (redundant array of in(expensive/dependent) disk) or use erasure codes or a service (cloud storage) to backup critical data. Multiple copies are good too. Most things downloaded from the internet can be downloaded again.

As a last resort, there are services that can possibly retrieve your data from a failed hard drive (depends on the mode of failure). They aren't cheap.

One other tip... I use Defraggler to examine the "SMART" data from my attached disk. Look at the "health" tab... if you see any of the reported error rates start to move ( especially "uncorrectable sector count" or "read error rate" or "seek error rate" ) then I would be in the market to replace the drive.

Also monitor the temperature of the drive... they are mechanical and don't do well if they overheat.

Not to mention shock forces (by dropping them or moving them while operating).

DeFraggler doesn't see it.

Chances are that the heads won't actually move since the drive detected some sort of head crash last time it was operational. If the heads don't move, it can't read the label and, therefore, DOS (Windows 10) can't figure out what that is at the end of the USB cable.

At this point, your only option to recovering the data on the failed drive is to use one of the services that I mentioned. I can't recommend one because I've never used any of them myself.

All of the rest of my response was what you should do in the future.

The drives being manufactured today (by both WD and Seagate ) are about the same in the reliability department, so buying a different make of drive isn't really going to help anything as far as future longevity is concerned. These sorts of drives (consumer, external USB, 5400rpm, etc) are the least reliable drives that these companies make. The ecosystem is USB, SATA, SAS as far as cost, performance, reliability.

That said, every drive made today should be viewed as suspect.

You will eventually be able to change technology to flash or memristor or 3d Crosspoint or other more exotic (and very expensive) storage in the future. Some of those (like flash) are getting cheaper, but flash has its own reliability issues (and, worse, is that RAID technology may not help flash like it does hard drives, but that is a subject for a much longer post where I bring up a lot of research done at IBM Almaden Research Center).

Anyway, today you need to send this drive off to a data recovery service ($400 to well over $1000) if you absolutely need this data.

For the future, backups, redundancy (RAID, erasure codes), cloud services (don't forget to encrypt anything going to the cloud), and health monitoring.

Good luck.

I want them back.

I'll always burn DVDs from now on.

Thanks for the help

if from your phone or digital camera, perhaps you have them on the phone or SIM card or the camera flash card (I've taken to never deleting photos on my phone or camera... I buy new cards for the camera and I usually replace my phone with a bigger phone before I run out of room).

If from the internet, likely you can retrieve them again.

If you posted them to facebook or picasa or someplace, you should be able to retrieve them again.

Last, did you share photos with family or friends?... chances are those can be replaced as well.

thanks

I held it up to my ear and heard a faint clicking.

I am taking it in Monday to a local recovery place.

a number of steps...

First, they will try to attach the drive to a system that can issue special commands to cause the heads to function anyway. If the drive is still sealed that is.

If that works they can read all of the drive except the sectors where the head crash actually happened.

This handles like 90% of drive failures.

The rest is only done if like the FBI or someone really pushes them to do it.

If not, there are more extreme measures that can be taken.

They can disassemble the drive and see if they can manually get the heads to actuate.

Last they could actually (but I don't know that they do this) take the platters out and put them in a new drive. This last part (without a clean room) is going to be very difficult for them.

I highly recommend Carbonite - easy to use and inexpensive.

Partition Find and Mount (free) http://findandmount.com/

Then this: Unknown Devices (free) http://www.halfdone.com/

The above may give you some clue to what is going on.

My experience with external drives over the years is not good. It's not the drive itself that goes bad but the electronics in the enclosure. I ususally purchase a good quality empty HDD enclosure (last one was about $40), pull the drive out of the bad one and install in the new.

(And I assume it does because you removed it once), then the drive is communicating and you can force Windows to assign the volume a new letter. If you want to try this, PM me for a procedure.

A different, compatible power supply should be tried as well. I have had success using a external drive enclosure such as the Thermaltake® Blacx SATA Hard Disk Drive USB Docking Station. Of course, you have to take the actual hard drive out of it's existing enclosure, but that is a non-destructive process if done right.

Last edited Sun Oct 29, 2017, 11:48 PM - Edit history (1)

could it have been damaged by a power surge of some type?

edited to add- if its the devices power light blinking and the light is usually solid on, something is broken inside the device. Your computer can't recognize the device when the light is blinking. (You could open it and see if you can notice whats broken and repair it yourself)

There is a hair dryer 'trick' a friend taught me that works sometimes. Heat the area with the blinking light with a hot hair dryer for about 2 minutes, light will blink faster and go solid on and the device will be recognized.

If there is a 'start' or "on button" once the light is solid that's when you turn it on.

The device IS still broken though, once you get your info off it- get a new one or keep a hair dryer on hand

don't ask me why this hair dryer trick works sometimes, but it does and saved me $$ at a repair shop. good luck.