External HDD Dropped....What to do ??

Today......was the worst EVER. I've been going to the gym lately.....I mean I was spending 2 hours a day....everyday and it came to the point where my point was screaming "Please give me a REST!!". Hence, I did today, my body became somewhat clumsy because my muscles where sore and stuff. Anyways, at about 4pm today, when I was about to go upstairs so that I wash my face, my foot tripped over my 500GB's power lead, which sent my external HDD into the wooden floor with a slight bang.....the drop I think was just over a feet. I quickly connected my HDD back to my laptop and everything seemed fine, as I was able to check through the many files I had on my External HDD and so I thought how about I restart my laptop.

I restarted my laptop and my SUMOdisk 500GB external HDD started this lousy clicking sound and basically it ceased to connect to my laptop or any other computers..........it would just make that DAMNED Clicking sound. So now, I'm left with an unconnected HDD and unable to retrieve my files and I DO NO want to think about the fact that I might never be able to get them back.

I did some googling and it seems the reason for the clicking sound is that the seeking mechanism has failed somehow due to damage most likely...........OK.......I'm noob so I've got no clue what it really means but its the reason why it won't connect to my laptop and for the clicking sound. Also, it DOES NOT give me the "USB Unrecognized" warning, which is worrying me because apparently it should come when I connect it to my laptop or my other computers.

The thing is I have 5 External HDDs but this particular HDD was the one where I used more often as I put my old files and stuff in the other HDDs. All of my HDDs are fulled to the brim except my new 1.5TB External HDD, which I was going to use to take all the files on the SumoDisk HDD (the one that seems to be broken) and put them in it. I wish I had done this fre@king transfer earlier..........I am at a lost and I don't know of any convenient way of recovering my data.

My data contains mostly of my lectures, essays, pictures, recent manga and anime downloads, movies, old back-ups from my computers, C77 stuff........basically the data that seems to be lost is very valuable to me.

Most of the data can be attained again if I knew what it was but the problem is I don't know everything but I am able to list the ones I remember. This REALLY REALLY REALLY sucks.

Can someone help me ??

This pretty much sums up my day......I feel like shattered glass and feel unable to join myself together again.

EDIT:

I did even more browsing by doing a couple rephrasing on google and found some stuff that seemed useful: -

1.) http://www.geckoandfly.com/2009/03/26/dama...re-and-service/
2.) http://www.data-recovery-software.net/
3.) http://www.r-studio.com/

However, whilst surfing I came across this site: -

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cf...05481&forumid=1

One particular member said these words: -

QUOTE I doubt whether much of your data remains on the disk. The initial fall would have caused local damage to the disk and probably the disk read mechanism. Each time it was run after that the damage would have spread, effectively destroying the disk surface.

When I read that....I felt sick........the thing is I've tried to mount my HDD on my computer multiple times since the fall and thats about 10 or more times I've started it up and stuff. Does that mean, I have effectively destroyed any hope of recovering or at least being able to find what I had on that HDD.

Why on earth are HDDs soooooooooooo damn delicate.

Guys.......I really really NEED your help.

okay...I've sort of had this experience problem. I knew someone who tripped over the power cord to my Western Digital 500gb external last year and I freaked out the same way. To this day it still works fine and I'm sure mine dropped farther than your drive (about 2-3 feet). Despite landing on carpet, the point is, if you hear that clicking sound coming from the drive, the fall may have resulted in a loose part...usually screws...and it may get stuck somewhere it shouldn't. Have you tried shaking the drive up and down to see if anything is loose? You may have to open up your drive to remove the screw, which you shouldn't do if you don't know what makes an external hard drive. You could always ask your manufacturer, but they may just tell you that your warranty may be voided.

In the worst case, I don't know how SUMOdisk is packaged but in most cases, you can rip off the external covers encasing the drive itself and still use the drive. Of course the problems here is that you void any manufacturer warranty you may have had as well as you will need to go out and buy a special usb that will allow you to connect the drive to your comp.

Basically from what it sounds like, it seems that the actual drive in the external seems to have been disconnected from your USB cable "receiver." Does the drive even show up on your computer (not necessarily with data, but does it list a drive?)

QUOTE (Kit-Tsukasa @ Jan 12 2010, 12:53 AM) Basically from what it sounds like, it seems that the actual drive in the external seems to have been disconnected from your USB cable "receiver." Does the drive even show up on your computer (not necessarily with data, but does it list a drive?)
I bought it from Argos over 2 years ago and so I'm guessing the warranty is finished now.

The drive does not show on any of my computers, its not even listed when I check Disk Management (@Control Panel ----> Administrative Tools -----> Computer Management ----> Disk Management).

QUOTE (JCDRANZER @ Jan 11 2010, 06:54 PM) The drive does not show on any of my computers, its not even listed when I check Disk Management (@Control Panel ----> Administrative Tools -----> Computer Management ----> Disk Management).
Does it show up under device manager?
If your running windows 7 or vista, go to start, search device manager, and see if you can locate your drive or the usb detection. Is there a yellow caution sign on any of your devices?

Given your case, it probably will no longer show up under disk drives since My Computer doesn't even detect it.

If you are hearing a loud clicking/clunking noise then that means its an internal problem with the drive. Was the drive running when it fell? Did it land on one of the corners or did it land flat to the wood floor?

If I were you, try to run the drive as minimally as possible, and consider sending your drive into a data recovery company if the data cannot be recovered through backups. Otherwise if the data can be recovered off of the internet or other sources, I would consider just writing it off, and taking it to a company to be securely disposed.

Also, compare the sounds on this web page, and get back to us with your results.
HDD Death Sound Clips

QUOTE (destroyah @ Jan 11 2010, 10:51 PM) If I were you, try to run the drive as minimally as possible, and consider sending your drive into a data recovery company if the data cannot be recovered through backups.
thats what I would do. I am not sure how much it costs to recover the data, but if it is important to you, then go ahead and do it!!!

QUOTE (destroyah @ Jan 12 2010, 04:51 AM) If you are hearing a loud clicking/clunking noise then that means its an internal problem with the drive. Was the drive running when it fell? Did it land on one of the corners or did it land flat to the wood floor?

If I were you, try to run the drive as minimally as possible, and consider sending your drive into a data recovery company if the data cannot be recovered through backups. Otherwise if the data can be recovered off of the internet or other sources, I would consider just writing it off, and taking it to a company to be securely disposed.

Also, compare the sounds on this web page, and get back to us with your results.
HDD Death Sound Clips
The HDD was running on my laptop and it fell flat on to the wooden floor. During the fall, my USB cord got disconnected and immediately after the fall, I just re-connected it back to my laptop and went to My Computers and was able to access the files of this drive.

The sound it makes is the constant clicking & clunking sound right after it just starts up.....I'll have to come back to you because I need to hear all the sounds on that site. The one that sounds most similar from the WD Section is "Western Digital desktop drive with bad heads clunking." but my HDD is an external and its brand is SUMOdisk. ----->


QUOTE Usually this is a sign of damaged or crashed heads and it means the drive needs to be opened in a class 100 clean room environment in order to replace head stack assembly. Don't try to open the drive by yourself - you could damage the platters making your data unrecoverable.

I've seen a couple posts here and there saying that changing the power cord or the USB cord would allow me to use my HDD again.

This is the possible solution, I would have to resort to: -

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/319548

EDIT----UPDATE: -

I just got back home after visiting several computers retail stores, which were Currys, Comet, PC World, several independent PC stores and Maplin.

Only PC World and Maplin were able to say actual stuff that seemed like they were actually trying to help me.

PC World, said that I had too book a data recovery session in which they will take all the files from the broken HDD and transfer it one of my other HDDs. They said they would have to take the actual harddisk out of the external HDD and use this special software to do the transfer as the broken HDD does not mount on to any computers. I asked what this special software was but they wouldn't tell me.

Maplin on the other hand, I just talked to this random dude who happened to be a computer technician and he said that I should open it and try to "see" the problem and he told me to use a non-magnetic screwdriver to avoid frying the drive. He also said to check if the hard disk itself was "strata" or something like that..........what is a "strata" hard disk??

The thing is.........I only really want to know what I had on that HDD now but even that will cost me the same price at PC World as for their data recovery services, which is £100 and thats about $150 to $200 (US Dollars).

Im glad that when I drop my hd it was still ok ...and it fell on the floor.

But to me it sould like either the platter or the read/write head got mess up....sooo it bad.

I pretty much dont have much to said since most that was said was already mention and I havent fix much hdd or tranfer stuff out a hd that was bad.

well anyway gl with it.

QUOTE (JCDRANZER @ Jan 12 2010, 07:07 AM) Maplin on the other hand, I just talked to this random dude who happened to be a computer technician and he said that I should open it and try to "see" the problem and he told me to use a non-magnetic screwdriver to avoid frying the drive. He also said to check if the hard disk itself was "strata" or something like that..........what is a "strata" hard disk??

The thing is.........I only really want to know what I had on that HDD now but even that will cost me the same price at PC World as for their data recovery services, which is £100 and thats about $150 to $200 (US Dollars).
Do you maybe mean "SATA"? - Serial ATA (Wikipedia). Otherwise not sure what he may have been referring to.

That said, unless you're very experienced with computer hardware and have the right materials/surroundings I'd strongly advise you don't take the drive apart. It's one thing to remove the external case to take the drive out, but another to open the drive itself...that's just asking to destroy the contents with some random static discharge or something.

Anywho, based on what you've described my guess is that one of the heads is busted somehow - which means its probably done for. If you really need to recover the data you'd need to send it in somewhere...
Thats just a guess though...

A drive should only be opened in a special room with special equipment unless you don't care about ever attempting to access the data again. The drive heads ride a wave of air at a distance of less than a ten of the size of sub-microsopic flecks of skin that fall off of all human's faces, hands, and ears every second. Those flecks of skin are nothing compared to the size of the fleck eating mites and fibers shead like a rain from your skin.

Even in the late 80's when I was a consultant to companies that made hard drives and computers, the head floating over a disk was compared to a 747 flying at 640 mph at 6ft about the ground and skin flecks where 10 ft high and smoke particles 20 ft high.

The air that we think of as clean is full of debris. Typically, hard drives are assembled in class 10 clean rooms where people basically are almost in astronaut suits if they even have to enter the automated area. The disks themselves are transported in some ares by deionized water which is so clean that it can't exist in nature for more than a few seconds.

If you want to open your hard drive, you might as well use the ugliest saw that you can find. It is going to be screwed anyway.

I'm gonna leave things by for now but I think I'll get back to this issue by next week hopefully as I've currently got to do some other things.

However, I will now NOT open the hard-drive and see if the warranty was 3 years for it because if it is.....then I could be able to get a new HDD as I pretty much know what was on it and I'm able to get most of it off the net.

Unfortunately, SUMOdisk is a relatively unknown company in my opinion and I have no idea of how to contact them. Lets say I have a warranty for it.......how would I proceed with getting a new HDD from them ?? What do I need ?? Like I think I would need the receipt and perhaps even the original packaging of HDD........I'm currently unsure whether I even have these stuff.