Hi guys,

I saw there's already a lenghty discussion about this HDD but my problem is slightly different from that of the other OP.

I have this Western Digital myPassport WD10TMVV - 11BG7SO and I dropped it on the floor because I'm awesome. The problem is that when I plug it to my pc (windows7 64) I hear the usb sound and I can see the "local disk" in the "computer" section. DeviceManager sees it too. The folder however is empty. I can hear the disk running and the led works (annoyingly too coz it's brighter than the sun).

Do you think I have chances to recover the files? do you need more infos?

Let me know and thanks for your time!

Generally it's not a good idea to power up a drive right after you dropped it because it might bring more internal problems
It is impossible to answer you question with fair degree of confidence without proper evaluation. And sadly to do the proper evaluation you would need to go to a professional

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

well, I perfectly understand that not having the device in your hands you can't be sure of what could be the problem, I'ld like some advice on what could I try to check on my own what is the real damage. since it plugs in correctly is it a disk problem rather than a pcb problem? I guess we can exclude the usb connector since it does his job.
Could you recommend some softwares that could check the disk for a possible data recovery?

things like this, I'm not an expert and I'm trying to understand if there's hope or not.

now I'll drop the bomb but please remember that it plugs and gets recognized, just it looks empty. well.. if I shake hit I can here a tiny component loose inside. that's not good right?

I'll try to build a logical chain
1. The drive was fine and data was visible
2. You dropped the drive thus drive experienced mechanical shock
3. You connected the drive hoping for the best but the state of the drive at the moment was unclear
4. Now drive gets recognized (this is however very vague statement) but data is inaccessible
5. PCB is most likely fine because the drive spins up
6. If you look on 2 and 4 you might draw a conclusion that data inaccessibility related to mechanical shock thus drive has mechanical damage
7. Severity of damage is unclear because evaluation has not been done and you don't know how to do it

General rule - you cannot use software recovery until you sure that mechanical damage inside the drive won't grow and cause more damage. You are not sure, me neither. What I'm sure the data loss you experiencing is related to mechanical damage and mechanical damage requires proper evaluation which can only be done by a professional.
Now if you don't care about your data and you decided to disregard all of the above and you accept that you might not see your data ever again (even if you go to a professional after that) you can try whatever software you like because they all designed to work with drives which have logical issues and not physical and it doesn't matter which software would kill your drive completely

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

your logical chain was perfect. that's exactly what happened.




lol, that's not encouraging but if it's the truth then be it.
I thought that maybe that mechanical shock could have damaged some sectors for whatever reason like the head touching the disk, and I hoped I could save something from the drive.

ok, so let's now get something clear to me.
let's say I don't care about the data that was in it (and frankly it's about true), knowing that:
the disk plugs in correctly,
shows up as empty,
and it's visible to DiskManager as Western Digital myPassport blah blah,
plus it also see the virtual cd where generally the drivers for the disk are
you think maybe there's no hardware damage at the moment but something just went wrong in that shock that cost me the data but now I could still recover the functionality of the disk with some software or by formatting it?

look, I already have another 1tb external disk now, no professional will ever be involved to try recover the data. we are in the hopeless state so everything goes. if I don't save anything from this disk I'll probably just open it for my own pleasure to see how it's inside or I' gonna sell the good pieces to fellow technicians/hackers/modders that need something out of it.

Ecco, ci sei arrivato. Puoi farci almeno 3 orologi da muro con i piatti e il resto e' interessante per vedere come e' fatto. Diverso e' se hai tutte le diavolerie che usiamo noi , ma devi anche saperle usare....

Now you got it. You can make at least 3 wall clocks with the platters, the rest is good for experiments. It would have been another story if you had all the gizmos we have, but you also have to know how to use them....

If it would be no damage you wouldn't experience data loss
I don't think you could re-use this drive if you don't need data - RMA the drive

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SAN, NAS, RAID, Server, and HDD Data Recovery.

ahahahah bene, avrò l'orologio più figo del quartiere

(fine, I'll have the coolest wall clock on the block. and it rhymes, yo.)



ok, since you're positive on the harware damage, (and it really makes sense what you say I was just pushing it to keep alive the hope) i'll just have fun mad doctor style with it. rma is not an option anymore.
Thank you Doomer for your help, I much appreciated it

What if you wait a couple of days, might it be alright then?

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On a clear disk you can seek forever.

I'm thinking some sectors fell off the platters. If you get a microscope you might be able to glue them back on.

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On a clear disk you can seek forever.

Answer of the week !!

is stick glue like Pritt good enough? I'm pretty good with it, I made a couple of kick-ass birthday cards for my mom with that, so I guess I have the skills I need.



lol.
but jokes apart I understand why it's a bad idea to power it up, but you have to admit that if you drop a disk at home you first try to see if it works, you don't rma right away.

A parte che se lo rimandi indietro in garanzia (RMA) dopo che ti e' caduto o pretendere la sostituzione e' truffa , secondo me. Si puo' confidare nel fatto che non se ne accorgano, ma e' un'altra storia (visto il tasso di "cadute" molte cose sono state cambiate e ben gli sta ai clienti se ricevono come restituzione un drive ricertificato - le aziende per quante colpe abbiano non sono enti di beneficenza)
Cio' detto, non e' il caso di accendere perche' si passa da un danno alla superficie a un raschione.

RMA'ing a drive that has been dropped or wanting it replaced is a scam in my opinion. Can rely on them not noticing what the problem is, but this is another story (due to the "fall rate" many things are changed and serves cutomers right if they receive in return a recertified drive - companies , albeit their faults , are not charity organizations).
So said, it's not a good idea to power the drive because damage changes from surface problem to engraved surface.

sending the disk to rma is not about scamming anyone. they are the compay that produced it and I refer to them if I break the disk. If they say "yeah the disk is broken for X reason, you owe us 30 bucks for the repair" I'm fine with it. If you break an Iphone (which I don't own btw) they give you a new one and a bill for the part/repair.
Truth is they don't even look at it, probably they trash it and send a new one without any question. Their policy, not mine.

RMA e' un rientro per difettosita' non per colpa. Se si compra una macchina e ci si schianta contro un palo appena usciti dalla concessionaria non sono tenuti manco a guardare che e' successo, con un HDD invece le cose "vanno" diversamente. Diciamo che la gente se la tenta...
Cosa succede nella realta' e nel caso generale : dischi che hanno di fatto inesistenti problemi (seppure funzionano piu' o meno regolarmente , es. settori o anche tracce riallocate, piccoli problemi) vengono resi, vengono rilavorati e reimmessi come sostituti per RMA o venduti come ricertificati - dipende dai casi.
Nessun fabbricante ha il tempo di stare a controllare migliaia di dischi uno per uno , le procedure sono ben altre e non si ha tempo da perdere. Nell'economia globale del discorso , sinche' le statistiche non si rivelano pericolose, e' piu' semplice e redditizio sostituire un disco dubbio o togliersi di mezzo un piantagrane (possibilmente mettendolo in black list) che discutere. Sai com'e', ai piani alti i numeri sono grandi in tutti i sensi
In ogni caso sinche' non si prova non lo si sapra' mai.

RMA should be for defectiveness only and not for external cause. If you buy a car and getting out from the sales area you crash on a goalpost or so, the salesman is not obliged even to check what happened, on HDDs things go differently (let's say people try to pull out an easy one...).
What happens in reality and in general : disks that have "de facto" non existing problems like bads / bad tracks / small issues are reworked and go back to market as refurbished OR used for RMA-RETURN. No manufacturer has the time and will to check thousands of drives - no time and money to waste. At the end of the day, until stats are not threatening , it is better and economically profitable to swap a disk in doubt or get rid of a ... troublemaker (possibly putting on a black list) than waste time on pointless discussions.... you know, at the upper floors numbers are bigger by every means
Anyway, you'll never know until the rpcedure is tested.