External HD broken

[Ozboblogolgoro]

This is my second hard drive to go down recently. It's a western digital 1tb WDE1UBK10000. Is there any way to recover the files on it? I found programs called "PC Inspector" and "Recover My Files" but I don't think they're working. I had them running for hours and they never finished searching the HD. D:


Also, on a related note, I'm looking for a 500gb or 1tb drive that is reliable. I need reliability over performance. Any suggestions?

 

[Soundmanred]

Hook it up internally to get the best results. (Unless it's under warranty, if so don't open it up.)
I have four WD externals (MyBook) that have worked flawlessly for a long time.
Do you move them while they are still plugged in at all?

 

[Ozboblogolgoro]

I only bought it about 3 months ago so it should still be under warranty. If I send it back will they see all my porn on it?

I usually use the "safely remove hardware" thing when I go to remove it but I was forced to just unplug it recently when that wouldn't work.

 

[Arkaign]

It's under warranty. Damn, I usually recommend pulling the drive out of the external case and plugging it directly into a system to get a better chance of recovery.

Yeah, what Soundman said up there already ^^

 

[ShawnD1]

External hard drives suck ass. I've had like 3 or 4 or them die on me. I even made a thread about it.

The drives themselves probably still work. It's just the SATA-USB converters that break. I put all of those drives in my computer and they all worked. They're still running as internal drives and they work great.

 

[Ozboblogolgoro]

OK, well I'm not gonna send in my porn filled HD :awe: so how do I hook it up internally?

 

[Ozboblogolgoro]

When I plug it in it tries to load for a few minutes. Then a message pops up saying that it needs to be formatted.

 

[Emulex]

nah most people do a few simple mistakes:
1. not power protected on ups (naughty for any drive)
2. cheap usb cable or overcrowded usb port - too much junk on one hub will = fail
3. always use policy for quick removal. always. unless you want a corrupted filesystem.
4. did i meantion cheap use cable? they usually come with the drives.

i'd say 80% of the failures i've seen have been accounted to that. maybe 5% due to faulty power bricks which do indeed go out partially and produce low power and cause erratic inserts and failure.

cable + power brick = swap that before you junk it; you might be surprised.

 

[jlee]

Did you try a different cable yet? I thought my drive was going out but a new USB cable fixed the problem.

 

[Ozboblogolgoro]

Tried a different cable and had same problem. I finally got it reformatted and after one more error it seems to be working. Sucks because now that it works I can't return it. And after all the issues it has had I don't feel safe using it for backups.