Possible to recover data in dead external case but hard drive is alive?

[Xellos2099]

ok I got a question here. Ihad a western digital mybook and receive it stop working so i crack open the case and put the hard drive to my computer to see if it can be savaged. I plug it in, the computer recognize the western digital drive but under computer management it say Unallocated. Am I screwed?

 

[master_shake_]

ok I got a question here. Ihad a western digital mybook and receive it stop working so i crack open the case and put the hard drive to my computer to see if it can be savaged. I plug it in, the computer recognize the western digital drive but under computer management it say Unallocated. Am I screwed?

in short no

you need the usb interface to get access to your files.

you'll have to find someone who has one or buy an empty case from ebay.

 

[Xellos2099]

ok wait so the only way to access those file is with another western digital mybook case?

 

[Ketchup]

It depends on why it stopped working. I killed the power supply on one of mine, but the drive itself was ok and lasted several years.

In your case, it sounds like it may have damaged the drive. Will it let you format the drive? If you can do a quick format, download a program like Recuva to salvage the data that wasn't damaged.
https://www.piriform.com/recuva

If you can't format the drive, some of the data can still probably be recovered, but mucho $$$.

 

[Charlie98]

Maybe use Ubuntu (etc) to see if you can access the files...?

 

[cubby1223]

Find as identical of a part number match to the external drive as you can, buy it, and swap the harddrives between them. I've done it before, works like a charm.

 

[John Connor]

Wouldn't a regular SATA to USB adapter work or do you still need the case?

 

[Matt1970]

It's just a standard drive in those enclosures. If you plugged it into a different PC and the drive shows up as unallocated, you may need some data recovery software.

 

[Xellos2099]

I just tried Easeus data recovery. However, all the file come back as mpg file and I can't play the file, anyone what up

 

[Ketchup]

Do you know what they are supposed to be? I would try correcting the extensions to what they should be and see if that helps.

 

[Xellos2099]

this is how it look like.

http://imgur.com/b2GcZRr

I try renaming them to mkv or mp4 but refuse to play

 

[Ketchup]

Curious, what happened initially to make the drive unusable? Did the power supply stop working? Was the drive making an odd noise?

 

[Xellos2099]

I am uncertain, the external drive stop powering on.

 

[Ketchup]

I am uncertain, the external drive stop powering on.

Ok, wanted to make sure. The question in my mind would probably be what power issues occured between it powering the drive and not. Hate that at least some of your data isn't recoverable though.

 

[Smoove910]

Doubt your data is recoverable since it's typically encrypted by the IC on the bridge board while it writes to the HD. If you install the drive in your PC, you will probably only see gibberish.

 

[Matt1970]

Doubt your data is recoverable since it's typically encrypted by the IC on the bridge board while it writes to the HD. If you install the drive in your PC, you will probably only see gibberish.

Why would you think his data is encrypted?

 

[Matt1970]

this is how it look like.

http://imgur.com/b2GcZRr

I try renaming them to mkv or mp4 but refuse to play

If you are only getting 315 files then the software is probably not looking at the right spot or not using the proper settings. I don't run recovery software all that often, but I think you need to tell it to look for non-deleted files.

 

[Xellos2099]

The files sound right but it is not letting me to use the file.

 

[Bubbaleone]

The files sound right but it is not letting me to use the file.

Try opening disk management, select the WD drive, and check whether it's been assigned a drive letter by Windows. If no drive letter has been assigned, you'll need to manually assign one. Even a perfectly healthy drive loaded with data will be reported as unallocated, without a drive letter assigned to it.

.

 

[Paperdoc]

For this situation you probably are best to have the HDD unit installed as an internal drive, as you have done. Further, trying Easeus was a good idea. But more is needed.

If Windows Disk Management can see the unit and tell you its space is Unallocated, that means that Windows itself cannot understand the data at the beginning of the HDD - probably in the Partition Table. That could mean two possibilities:

1. The data there was written by the WD Mybook unit in a non-Windows-standard form, so Windows is perplexed. This may mean you need to contact WD's Tech Support people for advice on how to recover the unit's data. It is very likely that the data are all there, but accessing it is the problem.

2. If the Mybook system did not use a non-standard way of doing things, it MIGHT simply be that there is only a small amount of info in the Partition Table that is corrupted. In this case there are a couple of possible solutions. One is to use Partition Recovery software that just tries to sort out the info in the Partition Table and Directory so that the unit becomes readable again by standard tools like Windows. The other approach is more general and uses Data Recovery software to find all the files on the unit and copy them to another storage device. Easeus is one of these. Others are Recuva and GetDataBack, and there are more. Many of these you must buy (although lots of them have a way to "free trial" them so you can determine whether they really can do your job properly), and some are freeware.

Almost all of these recovery utilities have one important characteristic. The do NOT write to the troubled disk, in order to ensure that they do not cause even more corruption to fix. Instead they write the data they recover to a separate storage unit. When they are done, you can they copy all that stuff back to where you really want it to be permanently stored. So, this means that, in order to recover your stuff, you will need (at least temporarily) a spare HDD at least as large as the troubled one, connected into the same computer.

 

[AmyTorro]

You can also buy identical external drive, remove hard drive and replace it with hard drive from your "failed" drive. If problem is with internal components of external drive - you should be able to retrieve your data.

 

[cubby1223]

It's just a standard drive in those enclosures. If you plugged it into a different PC and the drive shows up as unallocated, you may need some data recovery software.

No. Western Digital external drives do not use the standard way of setting up the drive. My guess is it's to support the encryption tools WD provides? Maybe, maybe not, but the point is, WD external drives connected directly to the sata port on a computer will not give you access to the existing files. I have personally done this on a WD MyBook that had went bad. Who knows if data recovery software will recognize it. The quicker, cheaper, and far, far superior procedure is to find as identical of a part number for the external drive, buy it, and use that to read the hard drive in question.

 

[cubby1223]

this is how it look like.

http://imgur.com/b2GcZRr

I try renaming them to mkv or mp4 but refuse to play

Locate on ebay, or elsewhere, a MyBook of an identical model.

When you have that hardware in your possession, you will have direct access to everything on the drive. You no longer need to use file recovery software, which as you are seeing first hand is often a massive pain in the ass.