Source, Image Retreival from failed Ext. Harddrive?

[dds701]

I have a Western Digital 500GB External hard drive. It has failed, and I need a reliable source who can

retrieve...save.. extract etc. the stored images thereon.

 

Thank You,

Douglas

[MichaelChang]

<p>Douglas, what often fails with those things is the controller and not the drive. </p>

<p>I would suggest taking the enclosure apart to remove the drive and test it separately. </p>

[dds701]

Michael,

Thanks for the timely response.

However, IF I open up this drive, how do I test it separately, please?

Douglas

[MichaelChang]

<p>Douglas, the drives are standard whether it's a 3-1/2" desktop size or or 2-1/2" laptop size, same as you would purchase a bare drive from any number of vendors. </p>

<p>A more recent external WD drive as you have will likely contain a SATA interface and connects to any modern computer as you would with any bare hard drive. In the alternative, you can also slip it into another external enclosure, if you have one, then connect the drive and power up the computer to see if you can read the data.</p>

<p>I've experienced two such failures and in both instances were defective drive controllers (the drives themselves were fine), and both were Western Digital units. </p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>By the way, Doug, the enclosure can be a pain to take apart. There's no real trick to it but to find the snaps along the seams where the two clam shell parts snap together. </p>

<p>It's likely you'll end up breaking the plastics in order to get the thing apart so just be careful not to damage the internal parts. The electronics inside is well protected physically with metal shields anyway. </p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>If it will help any, Doug, here's a video on the disassembly of the casing. My drives were in the same case but were USB and Firewire:<br>

<a href="

[zoltan_arva_toth]

<p>There is a European company that's been in the data recovery business for over two decades. (According to their website, one of their clients is multiple BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year award winner Bence Máté.) However, as you can imagine, their prices are, on the whole, extremely high for us mere mortals. If you sell - or plan on selling - the images stored on that failed drive for a profit, you might consider them; otherwise you will probably find them waaay too expensive (and no, I haven't used them myself). This is their website URL:<br>

http://www.kurt-datarecovery.com/en/</p>

[robert_k1]

<p>When my WD hdd crashed, I started with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics.<br>

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/940/session/L3RpbWUvMTM2Mjc1MDU2Ny9zaWQvOGZPcUpFa2w%3D<br>

Followed by getting some help here:<br>

http://community.wdc.com/<br>

And contacting a local data recovery service like these:<br>

http://support.wdc.com/recovery/index.asp<br>

I ended up not using the service, and was lucky enough to recover most of the data from the hdd.</p>

[Andy Murphy]

<p>Before I purchased an external HD on Amazon I read reviews where one claimed that Windows may install a wrong driver that will result in HD not being recognized. Reviewer advised "plug in USB cable before plugging in the power". I have not experienced this issue or verified recommendation.</p>