External Hard drive data recovery

[TheGreatSatan]

Someone I know has a Western Digital 320GB MyBook that has recently died. It uses a power plug to power the drive and a USB 2.0 to connect to the PC. I plugged in the cord and the little light on the adapter turned on. I plugged the cord into the MyBook and the front LED's came on. When I plug in the USB cord, the computer doesn't see it. It's not in My Computer, or the device manager. I've tried another USB cord too. I'm going to try to take apart the drive and plug it in internally into a PC case next. Can you think of any other options?

[Luke122]

I had something similar happen to me. I agree with removing the drive and plugging it internally, as that eliminates the possibility of the failure being the USB interface.

Maybe even try to use a known good usb drive interface, then you can hot swap the drive without rebooting the PC.

As far as good drive recovery software goes, Spinrite has never let me down.

[TheGreatSatan]

Does the HD have to be seen by My Computer for recovery software to work?

[crenn]

Depends.... most of the time, no.

[nevermind1534]

The computer has to see the hard drive, but it doesn't have to see the partition.

[Luke122]

Well, if you are running a program that is inside of windows, then yes. The hardware has at least recognize, even if it cant read the contents of the drive.

Does the drive recognize in the BIOS? If so, spinrite would work, as would some other apps. Does WD offer any tools for that drive?

[TheGreatSatan]

I'll try to get the drive from her to see if I can fix it. WD is useless.

[jdbnsn]

As for recovery software goes, file scavenger has always worked well for me. But if total failure exists and the computer cannot see it, I have seen hackaday.com show a kid who took the drive apart and actually swap the physical discs with another drive to recover the data, provided the data is worth that level of risk and effort.

[Zeus]

We use those mybooks here at work and though they don't fail often, they have due to our very aggressive use of them. When they have failed, usually opening up the chassis and plugging it in internally, allows it to work ok.

[Eclecticos]

Thats what I would do. . try to hook it up on the inside.
And check the front panel lead connections.

The may also be some usb options in the bios.

[crenn]

We use those mybooks here at work and though they don't fail often, they have due to our very aggressive use of them. When they have failed, usually opening up the chassis and plugging it in internally, allows it to work ok.
I have seen them fail spectacularly. Try doing heavy load on them for hours on end, they overheat (unless recent models have finally included fans).

[OvRiDe]

I have had 4 of the Fantom brand USB drives fail on me. In every case, I was able to remove the drive and either plug it directly into the IDE bus or a known good USB enclosure. I ended up just getting some new USB enclosures, and I was back in business with no recovery needed. They just worked with all data intact. I don't know if it will be the same for the WD, but if your not sending it in for warranty, its probably your best bet.

Good Luck!

[TheGreatSatan]

I plugged it in directly in a PC test system (Thank you Project Framed!) and the PC BIOS don't see the drive at all. Maybe if she wants I can find a company that removes the platters and pulls the data off that way?

[TheGreatSatan]

UPDATE!

I plugged a working HD into the same test system and it didn't "see" that drive either(???)

So assuming the motherboard is crap I plugged my drive into FRAMED and it worked! Then I told my friend about how my hard drive wasn't recognized at first too and that I need to retest her hard drive in FRAMED. I plugged it in last night and it worked too!! She's obviously ecstatic. I made a copy of the 50GB of data for her and I'll be giving her the hard drive tomorrow. Since the drive still works, I'll tell her that she just needs to buy a new enclosure.

I guess there's some kind of over-current device in that original enclosure that allows it to take a power surge and still save the drive inside?