Recovering data from unresponsive USB hard disk

[ScotHill]

Disk has power and spins but is not recognised by any of our computers, usually reports USB device has malfunctioned or USB device is not recognised.

I previously had a contact that could recover data from such disks for about a hundred quid but he's not doing it any more - any other companies I can try? Posting it away somewhere would be fine?

Is there anything I can try myself? Most self-help data recovery software seems to depend on at least the disk being recognised, which this one isn't.

[Captain_Morgan]

Wouldn’t it be easier to simply restore from your backup?

Failing having a backup, you could open the enclosure identify the drive type, likely SATA I’d guess & buy a suitable usb enclosure from Amazon, this will tell you if it’s the disk or enclosure at fault.

I suspect the cost for a professional data recovery will be significantly larger than paid previously.

[Whoozit]

Not an expert by any means but a couple of ideas

Was this drive previously used on all the computers you've now tried? Try uninstalling then reinstalling the driver. You could also try rolling back the driver if there is an option. Also check the manufacturer support, are there any specific drivers available.

Is it easy to open? If so maybe take out the drive itself and mount it either directly in a PC, or in a new USB enclosure.

[ScotHill]

Captain_Morgan said:

Wouldn’t it be easier to simply restore from your backup?

Failing having a backup, you could open the enclosure identify the drive type, likely SATA I’d guess & buy a suitable usb enclosure from Amazon, this will tell you if it’s the disk or enclosure at fault.

I suspect the cost for a professional data recovery will be significantly larger than paid previously.

I actually have a working drive of the same model so I could switch the disk between the two, I'm assuming there'll be Youtube videos showing what to do once I've got the case off?

[ScotHill]

Whoozit said:

Not an expert by any means but a couple of ideas

Was this drive previously used on all the computers you've now tried? Try uninstalling then reinstalling the driver. You could also try rolling back the driver if there is an option. Also check the manufacturer support, are there any specific drivers available.

Is it easy to open? If so maybe take out the drive itself and mount it either directly in a PC, or in a new USB enclosure.

It looks easy to open, but not necessarily easy to put it back together again, think it's clipped plastic rather than any screws to take off.

Will give it a try, got nothing to lose anyway, I wouldn't really want to pay more than £100 for someone to get the data back, a lot of it I don't need any more but there'll be some recent photos missing and maybe some gems that I've forgotten about.

[wol]

As Whoozit said, once you've got the drive out just put it into another caddy.

It could just be the USB cable has a broken wire etc etc.

If you want a bit more help then post up some makes and models and we can help point you in the right direction.

[ScotHill]

It's pretty much this LG drive - so I take the case off, remove the small green chipboard (like from 3m50s onwards) and put the big bit that's left in the new case and new chipboard? Or does the big bit need any more dismantling first?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhS9i9PPGAU#t=3m40...

[Captain_Morgan]

For the sake of a few quid on Amazon I’d buy a sata to usb enclosure & avoid the risk of damaging the other usb hdd.

But yes the green ‘bit’ is the usb to sata adapter, the ‘big’ bit is the 2.5” sata hdd.

[ScotHill]

Ah yeah, didn't realise it would just be a fiver, will try that next week when it comes, cheers.

[ScotHill]

Worked a treat, thank you, best £100 I never spent.

[Whoozit]

ScotHill said:

Worked a treat, thank you, best £100 I never spent.

Here's my invoice Glad it worked.