HELP! MY HARD DRIVE ISN'T WORKING!

[davienpeaks2312]

I accidentally bumped my hard drive and it fell on the floor. I can see the light working and I can hear it running, but when I plug it into my laptop, it won't work. My USB was bent when it first fell. I have a Seagate 2 TB External Hard drive, and my laptop is a Lenovo N22 Chromebook if that helps. I have really, really important files and software on this thing, so if anyone can help I'd greatly appreciate it.

[agent007]

Hi davienpeaks2312,

If you have a PC, can try to open the casing and do a direct SATA connection of your HDD to your PC and check if it's able to connect.

I accidentally bumped my hard drive and it fell on the floor. I can see the light working and I can hear it running, but when I plug it into my laptop, it won't work. My USB was bent when it first fell. I have a Seagate 2 TB External Hard drive, and my laptop is a Lenovo N22 Chromebook if that helps. I have really, really important files and software on this thing, so if anyone can help I'd greatly appreciate it.

[LarrySabo]

Since it fell, it probably has head and/or platter damage, or stiction (heads stuck to the platters, keeping them from spinning). The worst thing you can do is run it in an effort to diagnose the problem or recover data. The heads need to be removed in a cleanroom environment and examined under a microscope for damage/contamination, and possibly be replaced before recovery of data can begin.

[RolandJS]

+1 LarrySabo! As a beginner, I have reading forums across The 'Net, and many have been or beginning to cough up the same advice you posted, at the very least, many now suggest sending a hard-drive to a DR company/specialist early on; the more delay, the more DIY, quite often -- little data recovery at great expense, or no data recovery.

[fzabkar]

@davienpeaks2312, was the drive running when it fell?

Have you examined the USB connections for cracked solder joints?

BTW, if you can hear the drive spinning, then it's not a stiction problem, at least not now.

[pepe]

there are very good videos out there showing how to recover data at home.
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I hope you don't watch those, find some experienced pro in your area before your data goes nuts.

pepe