External drive fell on the floor, and now beeps once and isnt recognized...dead?

[peppergomez]

The drive only fell about 1 foot onto the floor but that seems to have been enough to kill it I guess. It's an external drive and now when I plug it in it beeps once and is not detected. Is it completely dead or is there anything I can do?

 

[Grebuloner]

The drive only fell about 1 foot onto the floor but that seems to have been enough to kill it I guess. It's an external drive and now when I plug it in it beeps once and is not detected. Is it completely dead or is there anything I can do?

Can you remove the drive from the enclosure and try it directly connected to a motherboard? If you're lucky, there's a carrier board that's cracked.

 

[jimthebob]

Like Grebuloner said, your best bet is to try removing the drive from the enclosure. It's possible that killed the board and the drive is fine (assuming it wasn't running at the time).

Which leads me to ask...was the drive running at the time?

 

[pendragon1]

^^ that and that, and hopefully the drive is not tied to the control board...

 

[jimthebob]

^^ that and that, and hopefully the drive is not tied to the control board...

No reason to think it would be tied to the board. Manufacturers just use a small PCB to connect to the normal SATA and SATA Power connecters on the drive then turn that connection into USB, eSATA, etc.

 

[peppergomez]

Thanks all will try that







My computer was on but drive wasn't being accessed

 

[jimthebob]

Thanks all will try that







My computer was on but drive wasn't being accessed

That's where it's gonna get kinda iffy...if the drive was off and the heads parked, it has a MUCH better chance of being fine. If the drive was spinning, even if you weren't accessing it, the chances are a bit higher that something could have gone sideways.

Either way it's def worth removing the drive from the enclosure and testing.

 

[pendragon1]

No reason to think it would be tied to the board. Manufacturers just use a small PCB to connect to the normal SATA and SATA Power connecters on the drive then turn that connection into USB, eSATA, etc.

except for the ones that are, like my 1.5tb wd mybook essential.

 

[pendragon1]

Thanks all will try that







My computer was on but drive wasn't being accessed

if there was power too it and it was spinning at all, for whatever reason, its possibly damaged but theres only one way to find out...

 

[peppergomez]

I'm just annoyed that's such a very small drop Was able to do that. I have a height adjustable desk and was raising it. I've got the cables managed so they aren't hanging around on the ground so I'm not quite sure how it fell out but it did.

 

[philb2]

I'm just annoyed that's such a very small drop Was able to do that. I have a height adjustable desk and was raising it. I've got the cables managed so they aren't hanging around on the ground so I'm not quite sure how it fell out but it did.

Yah, man. It's really bad luck. Did the drive drop flat onto the floor or did it hit on just one corner?

 

[auntjemima]

I'm just annoyed that's such a very small drop Was able to do that. I have a height adjustable desk and was raising it. I've got the cables managed so they aren't hanging around on the ground so I'm not quite sure how it fell out but it did.

I wouldn't be too worried. A lot of external enclosures have separate boards. I bet you the board is just ajar and not quite connected. I would quickly open and reseat the drive in the enclosure.

A beep to me, from an enclosure, means no drive is connected. Even if there was a head reading issue, I would expect the drive to spin. I bet a reseat fixes it.

 

[peppergomez]

Yah, man. It's really bad luck. Did the drive drop flat onto the floor or did it hit on just one corner?
AI didn't see it but I'm assuming a corner

 

[peppergomez]

I wouldn't be too worried. A lot of external enclosures have separate boards. I bet you the board is just ajar and not quite connected. I would quickly open and reseat the drive in the enclosure.



A beep to me, from an enclosure, means no drive is connected. Even if there was a head reading issue, I would expect the drive to spin. I bet a reseat fixes it.





Yeah if I can just receipt the thing that is By far the best scenario since I don't even know if I have a tool to hook the drive directly up to my motherboard and I have a laptop anyways which probably makes it d*** difficult.



This drive has about 3TB of my music collection on it and some play lists 7 working on so I would like to get those back. I have most of the content backed up but not the recent playlists.

 

[peppergomez]

Sorry guys this forum keeps screwing up for me when I I do not know how to fix it or stop it from happening. I think these forms are not compatible with android tablets







I'll be in the middle of writing or speaking my reply into dictation and then the formatting will go all wonky it's the weirdest thing

 

[auntjemima]

Sorry guys this forum keeps screwing up for me when I I do not know how to fix it or stop it from happening. I think these forms are not compatible with android tablets



I'll be in the middle of writing or speaking my reply into ductation and then the formatting will go all wonky it's the weirdest thing

No worries. We are adaptable.

 

[peppergomez]

Hey folks I don't see any screws on the case that will allow me to Open the enclosure

 

[pendragon1]

Hey folks I don't see any screws on the case that will allow me to Open the enclosure

get a hammer...
or look on youtube for a teardown vid. most are just clipped together.

 

[Grebuloner]

At this point, it's not going to fix itself, so cutting the outer shell to get inside is not an issue. Just don't bang things further...

 

[auntjemima]

Hey folks I don't see any screws on the case that will allow me to Open the enclosure

As stated by pen, it's clipped together. If not, the screws may be under labels or stickers.

My bet is clips.

 

[peppergomez]

Thanks all

 

[Zepher]

I wouldn't be too worried. A lot of external enclosures have separate boards. I bet you the board is just ajar and not quite connected. I would quickly open and reseat the drive in the enclosure.

A beep to me, from an enclosure, means no drive is connected. Even if there was a head reading issue, I would expect the drive to spin. I bet a reseat fixes it.

If it's a WD external, there is no way for the board to shift, I just screwed a board onto a drive to see. the board has to break to unseat or shift from the SATA connectors.

 

[auntjemima]

If it's a WD external, there is no way for the board to shift, I just screwed a board onto a drive to see. the board has to break to unseat or shift from the SATA connectors.

Lots of hypotheticals there, my dude.

 

[Zepher]

Lots of hypotheticals there, my dude.

not really, board or sata connector has to break, there is no way it can shift and lose connection without breaking.
The board is screwed to the drive, not sure if you were aware of that.

 

[auntjemima]

not really, board or sata connector has to break, there is no way it can shift and lose connection without breaking.
The board is screwed to the drive, not sure if you were aware of that.

All off the assumption it's a WD drive. I have external drives that were GLUED into place inside. Could easily cause this issue. I mean, who knows at this point.

But until they open the enclosure, who knows.

 

[Zepher]

All off the assumption it's a WD drive. I have external drives that were GLUED into place inside. Could easily cause this issue. I mean, who knows at this point.

But until they open the enclosure, who knows.

I am not assuming it is a WD drive, just saying if it is it can't be a shifted board unless the WD drive is older than 17 years as that is when I bought my first one.

 

[peppergomez]

I'll have a look in a bit or tomorrow to see what brand it is and update the thread so you all know

 

[peppergomez]

 

[pendragon1]

take those rubber feet off

 

[Zepher]

I had one of those Seagates, it was a pain to get the case open, there are clips all around the edges.
here is a vid I just found,

 

[peppergomez]

Thx Zepher

 

[peppergomez]

Quick question before I do this It's my hope that I can put the enclosure back on if the drive just needs to be reseated.

I use a laptop so I don't have a motherboard I could connect it to. Though I do have a driver Reader I could plug it into and connect to my laptop If I needed to transfer data.

 

[Zepher]

Quick question before I do this It's my hope that I can put the enclosure back on if the drive just needs to be reseated.

I use a laptop so I don't have a motherboard I could connect it to. Though I do have a driver Reader I could plug it into and connect to my laptop If I needed to transfer data.

Should be able to get it back together with no problems. If too many clips break, just tape it closed.

 

[Wade88]

Quick question before I do this It's my hope that I can put the enclosure back on if the drive just needs to be reseated.

I use a laptop so I don't have a motherboard I could connect it to. Though I do have a driver Reader I could plug it into and connect to my laptop If I needed to transfer data.

They make usb to sata adapters and docks, I use one of the former to replace hdds in old consoles and some people's computers with like capacity sata ssds without a computer and a few that are just usb 3 to sata with a 1 meter extension cable and these work great for testing disks with laptops or if you don't want to open your neatly dust filtered tower during dogs and cats shedding season.

 

[peppergomez]

Well this sucks. I decided that rather than try to tinker with it myself and mess things up. I'll take it to a local tech repair place. They don't have a drive recovery room so they did not open the hard drive up. But they did open the case and said they weren't able to do anything bc the drive just does one 2-5 second beep when plugged in. They gave me a number for a drive recovery place who quoted me between nine hundred to three thousand dollars. Which is absolutely out of the question for me. I'd like to get the data back but I have about eighty five percent of it backed up. The main thing I had sunk a bunch of time into was creating playlists from my music collection that I hadn't yet put on to my ipod. I will have to redo all those plus redownload about two hundred music blogs playlists.

I guess at this point I mjght just try to open the damn thing yp Myself and see if I can re align any parts. When I mentioned doing that at the local Tech place they looked at me like I was crazy and said I don't want to end up ruining the drive by getting dust on it

I did watch a few videos on it and those guys make. It seem like it's no big deal to realthe stylus of whatever it is you call it that rights and reads onto the drive. And they made it sound like dust is no big deal either since it Just get knocked off of the platter when it starts spinning


Does anyone done Here done this kind of repair before?

I don't Think I even have the right screwdrivers to open The drive Though I could probably borrow a pair from the handyman here in my building.

 

[pendragon1]

When I mentioned doing that at the local Tech place they looked at me like I was crazy and said I don't want to end up ruining the drive by getting dust on it

correct face and response. yes they are that delicate. best i've done is a PCB swap, never anything internal.

it sounds like the head is crashed. you could try the old freezer trick. put it in a anti-static bag and freeze it over night. hook it up and see if it will work and then quickly start grabbing data if it does.

 

[peppergomez]

correct face and response. yes they are that delicate. best i've done is a PCB swap, never anything internal.

it sounds like the head is crashed. you could try the old freezer trick. put it in a anti-static bag and freeze it over night. hook it up and see if it will work and then quickly start grabbing data if it does.

Thanks okay. I f****** hate hard drives.

 

[peppergomez]

correct face and response. yes they are that delicate. best i've done is a PCB swap, never anything internal.

it sounds like the head is crashed. you could try the old freezer trick. put it in a anti-static bag and freeze it over night. hook it up and see if it will work and then quickly start grabbing data if it does.

https://www.datarecoverygroup.com/articles/freezing-your-hard-drive-bad-idea

 

[pendragon1]

https://www.datarecoverygroup.com/articles/freezing-your-hard-drive-bad-idea

"so use our service" of course a data recovery place would say anything but sending it to them is a bad idea...

 

[peppergomez]

"so use our service" of course a data recovery place would say anything but sending it to them is a bad idea...

I won't be sending the drive off anywhere it's not worth paying all that money to fix.