Fix your Failed External Hard Drive by Data Recovery Specialists
CARDIFF, Wales (PRWEB) July 20, 2018 -- External hard drives are prone to all sorts of data loss scenarios, from taking an impact to coffee spills. Here at Data Recovery Specialists we see many external hard drives, often with failures that could be self-diagnosed and fixed. So if your hard drive isn’t functioning, follow these simple steps.
1. Check the power supply. Is the drive spinning and sounding normal? Clicking or scratching indicates a catastrophic failure. Don’t try to eject the media and shut down, simply pull the power and seek a specialist. Portable external drives are particularly prone to power supply issues and often the USB connector simply doesn’t supply enough power. A new connector normally sorts these issues.
2. Are the USB connectors okay? Try a different cable. If the female connection is damaged or looks particularly worn, you may have to change the external caddy. Assuming the external enclosure doesn’t use hardware encryption, proprietary authentication or logical sector size manipulation, a replacement hard drive enclosure will often render the drive serviceable. These are inexpensive and available online or from most computer shops. When replacing the enclosure, be sure to handle the internal drive properly.
3. Is the operating system prompting you to format or initialise the drive? If so do not allow it to. This will create a new file system potentially destroying your data. Overwritten files are lost forever.
4. If the drive is mounting but the files are missing or corrupted, you may be looking at a problem with your file system.
Data recovery software is often the answer but do your research. They are not all the same. Determine what file formats you are trying to recover and make sure you get appropriate software. Never read or write to the failed drive.
If you still are unable to recover your data, you will need the services of an expert. Talk to Data Recovery Specialists who will be able to assess your hard drive and provide a no obligation list of recoverable files.
Aran Pitter, Data Recovery Specialists, http://www.datarecoveryspecialists.co.uk, +44 442920100982, [email protected]
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