Help! unreadable and corrupted external hard drive

[zacheri]

Hi guys, I'm having a dilemma, as the pictures, videos and other important files I saved on my external hard drive cannot be accessed. I have searched through the Internet and found the Power Data Recovery. I tried it, it only saved 4gb of files after scanning a external hard drive with a capacity 149.05gb. As far as I can remember, the total files reaches more than 100gb. Will there be other means for me to recover the other files which Power Data Recovery software was not able to recover =(

 

[TechAsh]

You could send the drive to a data recovery specialist, they might be able to recover most/all of the data, but they will be expensive.

A tip for the future: Always make multiple backups of everything.

 

[componentwarehouse]

You could try putting the hard drive in your computer, I had an external hard drive once that broke, but the hard drive was fine, it was just the electronics in the case that broke. Worth trying it anyway.

Alex

 

[Jarryd]

Hey, this sucks when it happens, like TechAsh said, sending it off to a specialist is your best bet, also...if you cannot get the data off it, or if you do, once you have what you need or whatever you can get from it, i recommend using FDisk to wipe it and clear it fully.

This will totally delete any existance of files, it is almost impossible to recover old data if you FDisk something, so make sure you do it when you have nothing on it you need anymore.

But usually that gets them working again.

 

[zacheri]

Ok. Thanks guys! That's really expensive... Yes, I agree with you TechAsh, next time I'll be making multiple back-ups in the future.

I was able to recover after attempting for the 2nd time 49gb worth of files. I just hope, that's just what I need.

I am planning to buy a new external hard drive and I want to be sure of its quality, do you have suggestions? =)

 

[Jarryd]

My suggestion would be this:

http://www.cnet.com.au/desktops/storage/0,239029473,339278325,00.htm

I have one and it works really great, i have never had any troubles with it, it is one of the best i have ever used.

Only downside there is price....

This is a more less expensive and smaller version:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/freeagent_desktop_data_movers

Probably what you are looking for.

 

[zacheri]

Thanks! I'll check the specs. I'm quite familiar with it =)

 

[like2program]

I would suggest that you get a sata drive dock and just go buy a normal sata drive. That way it can be used internally if you ever need it. It also make switching out drives very easy. If you have the option use eSATA though because it has high transfer speeds.

Also DO NOT use the seagate FreeAgent™ Desktop Drives. I had one and it wouldn't function correctly if you booted up with it plugged in. and it had numerous other problems as well. I normally love seagate products, but this is an exception.

 

[componentwarehouse]

I would suggest that you get a sata drive dock and just go buy a normal sata drive. That way it can be used internally if you ever need it. It also make switching out drives very easy. If you have the option use eSATA though because it has high transfer speeds.

Also DO NOT use the seagate FreeAgent™ Desktop Drives. I had one and it wouldn't function correctly if you booted up with it plugged in. and it had numerous other problems as well. I normally love seagate products, but this is an exception.

I would recomend a My Book. I have heard good things about them.