External HD Problem

[crshnbrn]

Ok well here is my problem bear with me on the length please >_<

Earlier today I was doing some work cleaning out the inside of my PC and my retarded little brother wanted to use my Maxtor 320gb Ext HD and he dropped it maybe a foot from the tile floor we have. After I finished yelling at him I tried the HD in each of our computers and it doesnt work T_T In all of the computers when I plug it in, it stops like everything. Its hard to explain, but for example if its plugged in before I boot windows just will not load until I unplug it, its similar if I try and go into the device manager, it just wont load while its plugged in. However, when I launch the device manager before plugging it in then plug it in, it says that the device is working properly in just about everything but the HD will not show up under My Computer. Just recently right after I plug in the HD I hear a clicking noise Now I know that the drive probably broke, etc but is there ANY way I can fix it/recover the data myself or send it to someone who can recover the data/fix it cheap? I tried going through Seagate but 2100$ is way out of my range and I have like 100 gigs of data on it that I need
I appreciate any help a great deal and sorry if this seems a bit confusing

 

[cprince]

It seems like the usb controller is mess up. You can try taking the drive out of the enclosure and plug it directly into the computer, just like any other internal hard drive, and see if it works. Good luck.

 

[HermDogg]

No, if it goes clicky it is most likely the drive. Regrettably, there is no easy way to recover things like this. Resign yourself to the fact that you're most likely not getting your data back. You do, however, have a few options.

1) Try plugging it into the mobo directly and checking under Disk Management in Admin Tools. This will tell you if Windows is capable of seeing the drive at all.

2) There is software out there in the netherworld called Disk Commander which sometimes allows you to recover data from partitions that aren't even recognized by the OS. Unfortunately, the company that makes the software (Winternals) was bought out by Microsoft and their products are no longer available through standard distribution channels (figure it out). This is about your only shot at recovering your data. This would best be done with the drive plugged into the mobo.

3) Ridiculous options

The infamous "freezer" hack - there is talk on the tubes that dead hard drives can sometimes be recovered if they are cooled down first. Usually this involves putting the hard drive in a plastic bag first (no moisture) and putting it in the freezer. This is obviously to be used as a last last resort, and may even be urban legends.

If you're completely desperate to recover this information on the cheap, you can TRY a platter switch. This is where you physically open up the drive and remove the platters and place them in another drive. This is to be used only if someone's going to die if you don't get that information off that drive, because most likely said person is completely screwed.

Other than that, you can try and find local disk recovery solutions, but they are not going to be cheap. Good luck.