I think I broke my external hard drive

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Late last night I was listening to book 3 of Harry Potter from my WD 1TB external hard drive.. Got tired,and just turned it off without thinking.

Now it won't work;the little light doesn't even go on. Have I broken it? can I fix it? can I retrieve the data? There's nothing crucial on it,just a few GB of music and about 250 GB of films.

[theVOID]

Plug in the drive before starting the PC (cold booting) and see if it is recognized.

If that dose not work get the latest drivers for your ext hard drive.

If that does not work download the western digital recovery tools and do a complete scan of the drive.

If your drive cannot be recognized there are options, such as mounting it in unix, but this really isn't a job for an amateur - you're more likely to cause more damage.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Plug in the drive before starting the PC (cold booting) and see if it is recognized.

If that dose not work get the latest drivers for your ext hard drive.

If that does not work download the western digital recovery tools and do a complete scan of the drive.

If your drive cannot be recognized there are options, such as mounting it in unix, but this really isn't a job for an amateur - you're more likely to cause more damage.

Thanks Void.

Yep tried cold booting,plus tried the the drive on two other devices:plasma USB, Plus external USB player. Thing is not getting power:no vibration at all when turned on.


I went out and got another enclosure.($23) Have hit snag. The fittings which came withe the enclosure don't. I think I may be one stage short.

I've taken the drive out of its enclosure. I now have a flat metal case. It has a sticker with specs one the front.On the back,there seems to be the back of a circuit board,which takes about about 1/3 of the back.There are 5 screws. Do I remove them?

All I want to do is recover the data about 100 films and about 50 music albums. A new 1TB WD external drive drive is only $95. This is mainly an exercise to see if I can fix the thing. I get a lot of satisfaction from gaining even small new skills.It doesn't really matter if the drive works or not,as long as I learn how to remount an external drive in a new enclosure.

(1) New enclosure with connections




(2) WD drive (front)





(3) WD drive (back)