Hi m name is Kenneth and I am just getting into the computer field hopefully on the networking side so if any one has any ideas I would appreciate it. I have an external harddrive that I bought when I was in Iraq and during the travel home now it just makes noise and my computer does not recognize it as new hardware. Is there a way to retrieve my data from this harddrive that is not working so that I can place it on my new one. I know i should have backed up my data but we do not always think of this until it is too late. Moderated: Welcome to hardwareforums.com! I've moved your thread, since it was posted in the wrong forum. -AT
does the drive make noise, or does the external case have a buzzing fan? The hard drive may have been killed due to beatings.
Let me point out the fact that an external hard drive is simply a standard IDE (internal) hard drive with a USB/firewire-enabled case. I would recommend removing the HDD from the chassis and installing it directly into a desktop PC as a secondary (non-boot) volume. You'll have a better chance of recovering at least some data that way. If the files are really important and the drive isn't completely dead, you might try a few passes with GRC's (non-free) SpinRite. It has pretty good luck getting data that would otherwise be completely unrecoverable (sometimes). Good luck, -AT
Yes, the drive does make noise. Also besides the traveling with the portable external hard rive I left it on for four days straight. There is no fan at all.
