When an external HD fails?

[The Shadow 2023]

I'm sure I'm not the only one, who has experienced the failure of an external HD. I've been given several such failed devices, and even had one or two of my own. In fact I had one this past week. I've never bought an external HD, so I'm assuming that someone must have given it to me... A very small and compact, USB, 1TB backup drive. I've used it for some time, to hold data backups from my computer that I'm on now. Last time I wanted to use it, my PC would make weird sounds when I'd plug the drive into any of my USB ports, but it would not read the drive. So, calling on my experience with such devices, I cracked open the case, and removed the 1TB Toshiba HD (spinner, not SSD)

I slaved the little (laptop) drive to my main desktop PC and ran a drive check. It checked out 100% good.
So now that reclaimed drive is permanently mounted inside this very PC, as my 'Backup' drive.

I wonder just how many external HD's are just thrown away every year, because they stopped working.

Several years ago, I was given a WD 8TB external drive, that only worked for a short time and then quit.
Suspecting that the problem was in the interface and not the drive itself, I set about getting the full sized Seagate drive out of the enclosure.
It wasn't easy! I thought I'd have to use the "Jaws of Life", because the case seemed to be sealed. But with a screwdriver, hammer and lots of persistence, I finally got that drive out of that case, totally destroying the case in the process.
But once out of the case, and under test, the drive itself proved to be AOK! It now resides in my Main PC, as a storage drive. Waste not, want not!
As an extra Storage drive, it has to be one partition and formatted NTFS. For large files, like ISO's, and backup image files, it works great.

Shadow

 

[RogerOver]

I wonder just how many external HD's are just thrown away every year, because they stopped working.

 

[Bighorn]

I have several HDDs that came from portable cases that are just fine, the electronic interface in the case was the problem. The only such drives that didn't work out as well came from a NAS device, seems the "special" formatting of them is harder to deal with since most NAS drives formatting is interpreted by the device to serve with Mac, Windows and Linux computers.

 

[The Shadow 2023]

OK, I'm either showing my age, or my ignorance, but..... how would a HD in a NAS differ mechanically/electrically from the HD in the typical computer? Be gentle!

I used to just love it, when someone would say, "You can't low level format that drive!". But then I'd dig out my LLFormat program, Which I still have, by the way, and run it against the drive and wind up with a NEW drive. It's essentially the same thing that was done at the factory to block out the ever present BAD sectors on the drive.
So can a drive that was originally in a 'NAS', be 'renewed' to work on a regular desktop PC?

Some years back, I'd take an IDE drive and connect it to a SATA II port on my motherboard, via an IDE to SATA adaptor, and have an IDE drive with the data transfer speed of a SATA drive. That was another one of those "you can't do that!" cries from the uninformed masses. I've always excelled in doing that which I was told I couldn't do! Life is more fun that way!
Cheers Mates,
Shadow

 

[Bighorn]

As far as I can tell the HDDs in a NAS device are the same as in computers, 3.5" SATA and maybe 5400RPM or 7200RPM. Mine is a Buffalo LinkStation LS220 with 2 Seagate 2TB drives running as RAID 1 mirroring. It's the electronic interface in the case that interprets the signal from the computer that gets saved. An earlier NAS drive hadn't failed but the software had a security issue and no update for it. The drives were still usable but I cleaned the partitions off using a program which put them back to their as-shipped condition then could be partitioned and formatted as NTFS.

So Yes, after removing a drive from a NAS device or even a USB External case it is possible to repurpose a NAS drive into a Desktop computer. I've actually done both for Data storage, have a 2TB drive in my Win11 Desktop and a 1TB drive in my Win10 Desktop.

 

[cadmasterUK]

I have (had) an iomega PX4-300d NAS with 4 Hitachi 2TB drives but the power supply failed (input plug melted, giving off smoke - and flame when removed from the device socket). I bought a used Netgear ReadyNAS NVX 4210 as a replacement, but it cannot read the disks - reports 'Could not mount root RAID' on the device and 'Corrupt root' in Netgear RAIDar.
I have tried putting one of the drives into an external case with USB to my PC but it doesn't even see it.
There is critical data backed up onto the drives - any ideas on how I can recover it before reconfiguring the Netgear, which I believe will reformat the drives?

 

[RogerOver]

I was able to recover everything from an unacessible MACBookpro with "Test disk" https://www.partitionwizard.com/disk-recovery/how-to-use-testdisk.html (running it from a Windows computer and connecting the MAC Disk via USB).
It's a very powerfull tool, but based on DOS.
Be very carefull however, if you do not have at least a bit of experience with DOS. Think twice before every step !
(There are also more modern freewares with a Windows GUI available on the net (you could try them first; there is one further down in the link), but I was only successfull to access the old disk with "Test disk").

Good luck

 

[needle]

have had 2 USB drives in enclosure's fail; pulled out the drives and still failed; wonder if it is a heat issue. I now have a 500g, 1T, 4T and a 5T (got a deal) USB drives with the 5T running all the time. Not in enclosures .Have had no issues other than spin-up.

 

[cadmasterUK]

Is it possible to rebuild the mbr on an external drive without destroying the data?
Or create an mbr for Windows on a disk that previously was in a Linux device?

 

[Bighorn]

First question, maybe not. Also involved is the FAT/File Allocation Table, any change may lose track of what files are on it and where they are located. That's for HDDs, haven't worked with SSDs in that area yet.

Second question, Yes, I have done it. But I've used a program called GPARTED/GNU Partition Editor. It is free for download as an .iso file used to burn an exact bootable CD-R disc copy of the original [not a CD-RW] and wipe a drive back to as-shipped condition. It is Linux based and not installable. It comes with a bootable Linux LiveDVD .iso used to create a DVD-/+R disc [again not an RW].

I do the work with drives in a USB Drive dock.

 

[needle]

Back at it with the Dead passport. I have done a bunch of reading and watching on youtube ; so I decided to try a couple of things; what can I lose. As a reminder I am after the last backup image file that resides on this 2T drive. Pulled it apart easily. Then removed the circuit board to give it a good look over ( like soldering at the connector. Plugged just the board in and the light still comes on and the pc makes that connection sound. Couldn't see anything and I may go out and pick up a tiny soldering iron anyway. Next, I dared to open the drive case specifically to see if the heads were stuck on the platter; no such luck. Powered up the drive and the platter spins freely and the heads just seek of and over again.
With my knowledge or lack of, I have gone as far as I can. Taking the drive down to our local tech-shop for other options. I really want that image file.
Oh and I got the replacement docking bay last night to replace the unit that also packed it in. Thery both were old and owed me nothing. Just bad timing!!

 

[Xploit Machine]

I had few cases such as OP including my personal spinner model HDD (at that time SSD's never existed) as I lost most of my personal documents and photos which I failed to recover.

I worked in a scrap collecting factory part-timely when was in highschool back then and had few Indonesian customers whom like to purchase "spoiled" HDD's to restore, they will visit our factory and do live testing and collect those problematic / failed HDD's. I wondered and asked the how they're going to restore a fully-failed HDD's since I have no clue and they told me that they have special equipments to restore and re-sell those hard drive?

Till now I don't know what equipments was than since as far as I know, to dismantle a HDD you need a vaccuum lab with proper attire and such .. ​

 

[Henk]

... worked in a scrap collecting factory part-timely when was in highschool back then and had few Indonesian customers whom like to purchase "spoiled" HDD's to restore...

But than they may get access to sensitive data ?

 

[Xploit Machine]

... worked in a scrap collecting factory part-timely when was in highschool back then and had few Indonesian customers whom like to purchase "spoiled" HDD's to restore...

But than they may get access to sensitive data ?

probably, most of the HDD are from personal users .. those from banking & financial departments are not given to us as they keep and dispose according to their procedures ..

 

[The Shadow 2023]

I have quite a 'stack' of HD's that work great, but came out of failed External "Backup" drive Enclosures.
So when I get a failed Backup drive, I crack it open, sometime with hammer and chisel, save the drive, which I promptly reformat, and toss the enclosure in the trash. The best drive I ever got was a 8TB Seagate drive.
The Format is not only to clear old data, but it verifies the integrity of the drive. I use a format that verifies every sector on the drive, and blocks out any bad or questionable sectors.

 

[needle]

Well, pretty much given up on my passport. Made a couple of calls to data-recovery companys and if the drive can be repaired and the data recovered, I would expect a mínimum of $400 cdn here in Canada. Too much for this retiree. But I have been working a bit with win file recovery software from MS. So far it has only recovered existing files not deleted files so I have a bit more to read on this. Be nice if I could find the missing folder of files in it that have yet to be overwritten. I don't like giving up but get over my head often.

 

[Bighorn]

Back in the days of DOS and continuing into Windows a deleted file would have the first character of a file name deleted, replaced usually by ?, made it possible to recover the file. With Windows 95 and later a deletion went to the Recycle Bin and would remain there until emptied at which point it was permanently deleted. A normally-deleted file would remain on the drive until the space was required with new saves. There is a way in Windows to skip deleting into the Recycle Bin, goes directly to Permanently deleting but it's not for the faint-of-heart, removes the possibility of easy recovery. That's where it becomes necessary to use a third-party software for the purpose. I've had the most difficulty in recovering data from a portable drive because of the interface attached to the drive in the case where it was set up to be used on either PC or Mac, same thing with NAS drives.

 

[needle]

I remember the DOS days and trying to work with code. Used to be a program where you could do a search easily if you knew the file name with the first letter intact. I read somewhere that now in win 11 etc the file is not really deleted but a marker is removed. But what do I know.

 

[The Shadow 2023]

Doing data/file recovery and fixing a broken wagon wheel are both on my "Never More" list.
If proper steps are taken to save and protect data files, recovery should never be an issue.
Backup solutions have been around since the DOS days, so there is NO good reason why everyone is not using them.
As Mr. T might say, "I pity the fool who does not do data backups".

For safety, my data is never kept on my C: drive, and it's also backed up to various media, both internal and external.
If somehow, I or the fickle finger of fate, screws up Windows, I can always do a quick re-install from a Flash Drive. Even if my main SSD takes a , I can quickly replace it, install Windows and a few programs, and I'm off and running again.

I save every HD that I get my little grubbies on, just in case I might ever need one. It takes a while, especially on the BIG drives, but running "Spinrite 6" on a drive to "Prove" it, is a favorite of mine.

In the current dispensation that we call the "Throw Away Society", it's not common practice to try to save anything like a PC hard drive or stick of ram. If it don't work, throw it away. But, I'm 'Old School', and I'll try to save anything before I just toss it in the trash.

 

[Bighorn]

I save every HD that I get my little grubbies on, just in case I might ever need one. It takes a while, especially on the BIG drives, but running "Spinrite 6" on a drive to "Prove" it, is a favorite of mine.

Interesting, just the other day I decided to 'inventory' my 3.5" HDDs on the shelf as to whether they are 5400RPM or 7200RPM as most of their labels weren't marked for that. Turned out I have 4 at 5400RPM and 11 at 7200RPM, all from computers that were either rehabbed/upgraded or junked but individual parts still usable. Sizes ranged from 500GB to 1TB with one at 2TB, some still have data. I haven't had to buy new drives in quite awhile.