So I think my hard drive's fucked

[alexz721]

My external randomly jumped and the file structure stopped being recognized. The data's there, but it can no longer be recognized. I rebooted to try and recover some data, but now it's just not being recognized at all. Also if I turn it on, I can't turn it off without unplugging it. Is there any way I can dump the data somehow or is it finished?

[Jipcy]

I imagine a data recovery specialist could do it for you, but they cost money.

What do you mean when you say it "randomly jumped"?

How do you know it's the file structure?

If you can't turn it off without unplugging it, perhaps something's wrong with the firmware. When you say it's not being recognized at all, do you mean that when you plug it into your computer, your computer doesn't see it?

Perhaps if you can somehow re-flash the firmware, it might work again.

Also, is this a standard hard drive in an external casing? Maybe if you remove the drive from the external casing and plug it directly into your motherboard, you could read from it.

[SquareHead]

I imagine a data recovery specialist could do it for you, but they cost money.

Also, is this a standard hard drive in an external casing? Maybe if you remove the drive from the external casing and plug it directly into your motherboard, you could read from it.

I agree. The last time I saw someone recover files out here it was an ugly price.

I have had similar experiences with my external drives. I have to agree with Jipcy's recommendations. I have fried external enclosures before.

[alexz721]

What do you mean when you say it "randomly jumped"?

It literally jumped about an inch in the air. Like, something popped in it.

How do you know it's the file structure?

What I meant is, it seems that it can no longer read the file structure. I'm pretty sure the read/write head just broke.

If you can't turn it off without unplugging it, perhaps something's wrong with the firmware. When you say it's not being recognized at all, do you mean that when you plug it into your computer, your computer doesn't see it?

Perhaps if you can somehow re-flash the firmware, it might work again.

Good point. If it's not mechanical failure, that could be the problem. Think you could describe how to do that, or point me to a good tutorial?

Also, is this a standard hard drive in an external casing? Maybe if you remove the drive from the external casing and plug it directly into your motherboard, you could read from it.

No, it's a standard external drive.

[Deathlike2]

What is the hd manufacturer for this drive?

[Jipcy]

It literally jumped about an inch in the air. Like, something popped in it.

I'm pretty sure the read/write head just broke.

Those two statements make me thing that nothing is going to be able to get to your data except a specialist, and that they are going to charge a LOT of money, since they might theoretically have to remove the platters from your drive and put them in another drive or something. I dunno how they do it.

I'd say it's fairly likely that there is a standard 2.5" (laptop) hard drive inside the enclosure/casing. You can hook these up to your motherboard like regular hard drives by using a very cheap pin converter.

Yes, please share with us the brand and model number of this device.

[alexz721]

Seagate External 300 GB 1394/USB ST3300601CB-RK. Supposedly very reliable.

[funkyass]

Seagate External 300 GB 1394/USB ST3300601CB-RK. Supposedly very reliable.

you should be able to crack it open, and put the drive into your machine.

be more specific about "random jump"

[Jipcy]

What do you mean when you say it "randomly jumped"?

It literally jumped about an inch in the air. Like, something popped in it.

[Deathlike2]

I honestly wonder if the merger with Maxtor affected the quality of Seagate drives.

How old is the drive anyways?

[alexz721]

About 9 months. I also have a second one. Now I'm hoping that one isn't going to fail.

Anyways, I'm trying some software options first before cracking it open. I'm also seeing how much data recovery will cost. Depending on the type of problem it might not be that expensive. I'm not holding my breath though.

[Jipcy]

Is this your hard drive? If so, the support page for your hard drive is here. I don't know if that URL will work for you; it may be dynamically generated.

Perhaps you can try some of those troubleshooting steps.

Given the possible size of the enclosure, and the fact that the model name of your drive includes "3.5", it might be that there is a full-sized desktop hard drive in there. In which case, you could just open/unscrew/disassemble the case and plug the drive right into your motherboard.

If it's a laptop hard drive, though, you would use an adapter like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6812203012 to hook it up.

[alexz721]

Thanks for the tip. For some reason, Seagate's support page wasn't working for me earlier.

[AntoineWG]

I've fixed those Seagate external drives before. They're just a standard IDE drive in a firewire/USB case. Windows wouldn't recognize that the drive had any partitions on it and Norton Disk Doctor wouldn't run on an external drive. I popped the case open, which was somewhat of a pain, yanked the drive, hooked it up to my tower and had it working inside of 10 minutes.

I'd be willing to bet a capacitor on the enclosure's controler board popped. Does anything rattle around inside it?

You're more or less in a no-win situation here. If you send the drive in for warranty service, you won't get your data back. If you crack the case open, you void your warranty and probably need to buy a new enclosure.

[alexz721]

Yeah, there is a tiny rattle, actually.

[funkyass]

my advice: get it out of the external housing asap.

it sounds like, at the very least, the controller in the housing(the IDE to USB/Firewire controller) has gone south.

the longer you leave it in there, the more oppurtinity for your data to get screwed.

[Jipcy]

the longer you leave it in there, the more oppurtinity for your data to get screwed.

There's probably not going to be a problem if it's just sitting on his desk turned off.

[AntoineWG]

and if it is just a blown component on the controller, it probably hasn't damaged, and won't damage, the drive. As long as the drive isn't making any strange noises, it's probably fine.

[funkyass]

and if it is just a blown component on the controller, it probably hasn't damaged, and won't damage, the drive. As long as the drive isn't making any strange noises, it's probably fine.

I said the controller is bad, what does the controller do?

It reads and writes data to the drive; the drive can be 100% fine, but he can still lose data if the controller is out to lunch, so he shouldn't even be thinking about attempting data recovery with the drive still in the enclosure.

[PHoNyMiKe]

shameless plug

I'm sure you can open it without destroying some tamper proof sticker (unlike the old ps2.) definately hook it up to a pc. google some "free data recovery software" shit, I think I had one called 'unstoppable data recovery' or some shit. maybe try some hard drive diagnostics software, search for ultimate boot cd and they have lots of name brand software on it already. never tried any software stuff though, cause my hard drives always have physical problems that mere software cannot fix.

[AntoineWG]

and if it is just a blown component on the controller, it probably hasn't damaged, and won't damage, the drive. As long as the drive isn't making any strange noises, it's probably fine.

I said the controller is bad, what does the controller do?

It reads and writes data to the drive; the drive can be 100% fine, but he can still lose data if the controller is out to lunch, so he shouldn't even be thinking about attempting data recovery with the drive still in the enclosure.

If the IDE drive's cotroller board is bad, you can usually recover your data by getting an identical drive and swapping out the board, which won't usually void the warranty.

What I'm referring to, however, is the enclosure's controller board, which sits between the hard drive itself and the USB/firewire bus. If that board is bad, then the drive, and it's controller board, are probably completely fine. If that is the case, which it most likely is, then there shouldn't be any need for data recovery, or data recovery software, since the file system is should be intact and should mount properly. Worst case in that scenario is you need to run chkdsk because it thinks you unplugged the drive without safely removing it first.

[Jipcy]

So, alex, have you decided what you are going to do yet? The drive enclosure should be relatively easy to remove/disassemble, although you might need some special screwdriver bits to remove the screws.

Just to make it very clear, this is what you would probably do:

There is very likely a standard hard drive, either 3.5" (desktop drive) or 2.5" (laptop drive) inside the large plastic/whatever enclosure that you plug your firewire cable into. All you are doing is removing/disassembling the external enclosure, in order to access the internal, standard hard drive. You won't be disassembling the standard hard drive, unless you have to do something like replace the hard drive's controller board.

There might be screws holding the external enclosure together, or it may be glued together, or clips, or something else. But if it's screws, I'm quite doubtful that they would be regular Phillips or flathead. They are probably some special screw, like a Torx screw (which is the same kind used on a standard hard drive's casing). If they are a special kind of screw, you would have to get a special screwdriver or bit. I got a nice mutli-bit Torx set from Lowe's.

[alexz721]

So the consensus here is that it's probably a bad idea to attempt any sort of software diagnostics as long as the external casing's still on the drive?

In answer to the question as to if it's making weird noises, it's a kind of whizzing sound separated by small gaps of silence.

Oh, and a random and possibly stupid question. I've got another one of these drives and I've been wondering for the longest time if it's better to stand it on its side or lie it flat.

[SquareHead]

Oh, and a random and possibly stupid question. I've got another one of these drives and I've been wondering for the longest time if it's better to stand it on its side or lie it flat.

I have had mine for about 2 years, have had it lying flat with 2 other HD's lying on top of it. It still has yet to fail.

Its an older USB2 only model at 160GB.

[Jipcy]

Oh, and a random and possibly stupid question. I've got another one of these drives and I've been wondering for the longest time if it's better to stand it on its side or lie it flat.

The hard drive itself shouldn't care at all. However, obviously if it's on its side, there's a greater chance of you knocking it over or something.