[fault151]

Hi . I have a problem with my external hard drive, its jammed with all my music on it. It just simply sounds like its spinning like a cd thats jammed in a machine, constantly spinning and making the same noise. It wont connect to my machine. Can anyone help out?

Is there such thing a s a reset on them?

 

[Trippytiger]

Unfortunately, hard drives tend to not so much "jam" as die entirely. There's usually not a lot that can be done with them once they fail, at least not cheaply.

You might try the trick of putting it in a plastic bag in a freezer for half an hour or so, then reconnecting it... but if it's really making a lot of noise, I wouldn't be too hopeful. I once had a hard drive fail and start to make an awful grinding sound. When I opened up it, the inside was covered in black dust caused by the reader heads grinding away at the platters!

Best of luck.

 

[fault151]

its making a sound like its stuck whilst spinning. I think it was from carrying it around in cold weather that caused this in the first place. I might get a hammer to it, see if a bit of thump might make it change its mind! :0)

 

[krrm]

If you are lucky it is the controller on the external drive that is broken. You can try to open the enclosure and put the disk inside a computer or another disk enclosure.

I shall not spell backup.

 

[empty265]

^ Second the remove the enclosure solution

I've had that happen more than once, and it's become my source of internal hard-drives.
(If it's the enclosure, the computer will sometimes give the 'USB device not recognized' error)


***

If there are any signs of burns on the actual hard-drive controller PCB, then you're probably out of luck.

You could try to replace the PCB then transplant the controller chip from another HD manufactured in the same batch.
(Minimum requirement of same PBC code IIRC)

It's relatively risky though, and you could potentially waste 2 drives in the process...
(I've saved one drive [technically 1 for 1], and fried another 2 drives doing this, but it's the information you want isn't it?)


If it doesn't work, you COULD send it to data recovery

 

[breakfastchef]

I do not know if you are a candidate for SpinRite - **Home of Gibson Research Corporation**. If it works for you, you will be completely thrilled. Let us know how this problem turns out.

 

[brainsalad]

Is it a 2.5" or a 3.5" ?

 

[TickTockMan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krrm /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you are lucky it is the controller on the external drive that is broken. You can try to open the enclosure and put the disk inside a computer or another disk enclosure.

I'd give this a try too. Open it up and put it in a second internal bay on another computer.

 

[Dorito123]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krrm /img/forum/go_quote.gif If you are lucky it is the controller on the external drive that is broken. You can try to open the enclosure and put the disk inside a computer or another disk enclosure. I shall not spell backup.

This would be my next move.

 

[fault151]

will it work if i put it in my mac? I guess the fact that it works externally would also mean it can work internally? Right?

 

[azncookiecutter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fault151 /img/forum/go_quote.gif will it work if i put it in my mac? I guess the fact that it works externally would also mean it can work internally? Right?

Most likely it'll work. But try putting the hard drive in the freezer overnight, then pulling it out and try plugging it in right away. I've saved data from at least 2 hard drives this way.

 

[fault151]

Quote:

Originally Posted by azncookiecutter /img/forum/go_quote.gif Most likely it'll work. But try putting the hard drive in the freezer overnight, then pulling it out and try plugging it in right away. I've saved data from at least 2 hard drives this way.

What, plug it in when its frozen? How does this help it?

 

[azncookiecutter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fault151 /img/forum/go_quote.gif What, plug it in when its frozen? How does this help it?

Apparently it gets the head properly aligned. The clicking sounds is usually the head of the HDD going back and forth. Been working in an IT department for co-op for a few months now, and the freezer is known as our personal data recovery centre for dead hard drives. Around 75% of dead hard drives, after the freezer, we've been able to recover most of the data off hard drives.

 

[fault151]

Do you have to leave it to solidly freeze over or just very cold? Wont it warm up and get wet inside?

 

[azncookiecutter]

Condensation can be a problem, but of all the times I've done it, it hasn't been a problem. The risk of condensation is well worth the risk in recovering your music. And I think just being cold could be fine, but I've been using only freezers to do it, so I wouldn't know. Leaving it in the freezer for a couple (say, 4-5 hours) or even overnight should be good enough to see if it works.