Hello all.
I have an old IDE hard drive, Maxtor 4d080h4 80g, which I used as an external hard drive before. Unfortunately, I dropped it while it was running, and now it is not working since. I tried to connect it internally to my pc, and it can be recognised in disk management, but my pc asked me to allocate it. I don't want to loose my data, so what should I do to recover them? What is the possible cause of it? Is it worth to swap PCB board? Please give me some advices, thank you.

Yours

Hi

Does the drive ID in disk management with correct capacity?

If yes, and if you accept risks of DIY, I would suggest you immediately clone this drive onto another using some non-windows utility (search this forum for 'ddrescue') and then try to recover your data from the clone. (when and if you reach this point, we will advise you how).
But be warned, that this procedure can kill your drive for good, and then data recovery could be impossible or very expensive and difficult even if you later decide to take your drive to a DR company.

Good luck.

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Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

PS. Your PCB is fine.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

I have a feeling there is a nice ring somewhere and something white is turning black (without getting a sun shower)...

Thank you.
Here is a pic of my disk management for the broken HDD. On the paper label of the HDD, it says 80g, so I guess it is right capacity.

Thank you for you reply, but sorry, I don't read English literature that much. Are you saying my HDD has gone mouldy?

Let's hope BlackST 's feeling is wrong. Unfortunately, he's usually right...

Looks like your hdd's capacity is detected correctly.

Now you have two choices:

a) Accept the risk of DIY (which, as i've said can cause your drive to be irreversibly damaged and your data gone forever, but it is free) and do as I advised previously
b) Take the safe route and have a pro evaluate your drive. Some companies have free eval, so you'd know what you're dealing with.

As always, your data = your choice.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

Thank you then. I guess I need think about it, and I will get back to you if I need further help. Thank you again. BTW, the HDD seems spinning, but just not working...

You're welcome
I would advise you to not power up the drive anymore until you decide what to do.

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners

... just because when the ring becomes a canyon, Wile E. Coyote can fall into it

Our wise Guru speaks but his wisdom can be hard to understand. He is attempting to warn you about what the heads are doing to the platters. Continued use will deepen and spread the damage over what was likely nice smooth platters. Get some estimates from a couple of data recovery companies here and you can make an informed decision. Keep powered off until you decide.