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External Harddisk

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by kavon_

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Hello, I need help with my external harddisk.

I was trying to play a wma file from the disk through Windows Media Player but it was taking longer than usual to play. It was not responding.

I tried to close the player and the folder itself but my laptop kind of hang. And so i had to shut down manually.

And now when i plug in my harddisk, it cannot be detected!! I tried plugging it into another computer but it also cant be detected.

Is it spoilt?
If yes, is there ANY way to resolve this problem? Will i lose all my data?

Please help, thanks alot!

5 replies

by tintoman

I would say that external drive is pretty much dead, if the drive will not spin or cannot be read it would cost a great deal of money to recover the data through a specialist company, and as ever in these cases data recovery will not be guaranteed. might be worth trying another usb cable just be sure though

by patridgew

I wouldn't necessarily say is is dead, sounds more like the usb is not being recognized by any drivers. I would look to see if there was an updated drivers to your external drive.
Another idea is, if there aren't any newer versions of the driver, is to get an external hard drive enclosure. These are just a casings that allow you to put internal HDD's in. You can buy them off CDW website, if you have the know how to remove your old drive, you can put it in this enclosure and plug into your laptop/desktop. Nothing spectacular about it other than you can get to your data. Ta-da you information has been rescued.

by tintoman

Now I'm intrigued how is taking the drive from its present enclosure and fitting it in a new one going to help??? I am going radio rental or did this post not state that this is an external hard drive already?

by patridgew

From the previous post it sounds more like the enclosure bombing out and not the actual drive. I have come across two instances like this, external drives housing databases, to lose the data was not an option. So I suggested moving the actaul hard drive out of the enclosure and placing it into the one already specified (CDW Part # 914890). It will detect the file structure making it available to move.
We have also used these enclosures for regular internal drives where XP/2000 has crashed and we were able to recover the files off those drives. Just because the OS won't load doesn't mean the actual drive is shot.
In any event, it is worth an attempt in recovering the data, instead of not trying. When data loss is a factor anything you could try is well worth not trying at all.

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