External & Portable Hard Drive Data Recovery
Updated on 9/15/2020If you need to recover data from a faulty or damaged external hard disk drive (HDD), then you’ve come to the right place.
Data Recovery Hospital has a team of external HDD recovery specialists who focus solely on recovering data from external hard disks. They are based in world class facilities and will restore all recoverable data files regardless of the make or model affected.
With our free diagnosis and a competitive, transparent, ‘no data, no fee’ pricing, Data recovery Hospital is your best bet for a fast, cost-effective resolution to any external hard drive problem.
Call now toll free (833) 503-1087 or use our free online quote form.
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Common External Hard Drive Problems
An external drive is a drive that is separate to your computer and has its own power supply and connected to a single or series of computers separately. Portable drives are highly popular for individuals who need a large amount of extra storage space and need this information to be transported with them. External hard disk recovery is not rare as these drives can fault easily and due to the fact that they are commonly transported, there is always the risk of outside factors affecting the drives.
External hard disk drives are essentially normal IDE or SATA hard drives inside a case with a USB or Firewire interface adapter.
In an age where all our information is stored in technology, it is no surprise that internal hard drives do not suffice and individuals need extra external hard drives for storage. External hard drive recovery is needed in situations where the hard drive has been damaged. This damage can occur if the prtoable hard disk gets wet, is accidently dropped or is exposed to extreme heat and this is when recovery is needed to retrieve the lost or damaged data.
Consequently, files can suddenly become inaccessible for any of the standard reasons that hard disks fail. In addition, the portability they offer comes at a price in terms of a number of more specific external hard drive problems:
Dropped portable hard drive – ticking noise
While their portability is useful, external hard disks are more likely to be dropped, banged, knocked or otherwise accidentally mishandled while in transport. If it’s the former, you may notice a ticking noise when the dropped external hard drive is powered on; this indicates potential damage to the read /write heads or the motor, or both.
Banged or knocked external disk – buzzing sound
Where the impact has been less severe, you may detect a buzzing sound – which can be symptomatic of a damged spindle.
External hard drive overheating
External hard disks can overheat in relatively short spaces of time due to the lack of ventilation inherent in the system. Some models will feature a small fan built in to prevent a dangerous build up of heat, whereas other models will have no ventilation measures at all.
Easily recognizable symptoms of impact/overheating problems include: buzzing/ticking sounds coming from the external hard drive, sudden seizure and failure to be recognized by the BIOS.
Twisted electrical cords and cables
Loose cords and electrical cables build over time under desks and small corner tables where we tend to have our laptops and desktops plugged in. These are the perfect breeding grounds for a mishap for external drives being pulled off a surface onto the floor. It only takes a small fall for the drives to suffer a failure. It is important to keep these areas nice and tidy, maybe use cable ties or clips to keep things neat. Make sure power cables are not stretched to the wall socket as a jittery connection could cause a power surge. Always keep the cords away from traffic in the room to prevent the drive from being accidentally pulled down to the floor.
Inserting the wrong power adaptor
Many times over you will have three to four different power adaptors in the same areas as where you plug your external drive in, so it is important to make sure you use the correct one! There have been many instances where a user has plugged a different power cord into their external hard drive causing a power surge which will overheat the drive. A good idea is to label the cords with a small white label to ensure you are using the correct cord for the device you are using.
Power surges from lightning strikes
If you live in an area that has a lot of lightning storms, it is important to unplug your external storage hard drive during these storms (or when not in use). A power surge from lightning strikes can cause external hard drive failure by overheating the drive or by causing the heads to crash to the disk surface. This can result in the dreaded clicking sound otherwise known as “click of death” and you will need hard drive data recovery.
Recover Data From An External Hard Disk
If your external hard drive exhibits any of the symptoms mentioned above, under no circumstances should you continue using the unit or allow the system to run repair programs such as Scandisk, Norton etc, as these may cause further damage, and can even make it impossible to recover data.
Successful external hard drive data recovery can be enacted quickly and effectively by the Data Recovery Hospital. Depending on the urgency of your problem, lost data can usually be restored to you on a storage medium of your choice in 24 hours.
Lost or inaccessible data issues caused by heat build up is almost always fully recoverable and heat associated problems are generally easier to solve than those caused by mishandling or dropping.
If you’d like to know more about how we’d recover data from your external hard drive or USB stick, please visit our data recovery process section.
Portable hard drives are commonly used to back up data on ones main computer and it is imperative that this data is safely stored in case it is needed due to your computer crashing or the internal hard drive failing. External hard drive data recovery, like other forms of recovery, can be difficult to do yourself and taking apart your hard drive might result in more harm than good. Taking your portable drive to a recovery expert like Data Recovery Hospital will ensure safe restoration and will not risk the total failure of your hard disk system.
Portable Hard Drive Brands & Models
Data Recovery Hospital repairs all of the popular external drive brands. Even though most hard drives consist of strong casing and shock proof technology, there is always the possibility that data loss or damage will occur and in this case, external drive recovery is needed.
- Buffalo
- Freecom
- G-Tech
- Hitachi
- Iomega
- iStorage
- LaCie
- Samsung
- Seagate
- Western Digital
- HP
- SimpleTech
- Glyph GT technology
