External hard drive problems

[Laura_jayne_m]

I have an old IDE hard drive from an old PC which I have been using in a hard drive enclosure as an external hard drive for the last few years now without any problems. I had a bit of a move round in my house recently so my PC got disconnected and stored for a while but I've now set it up again. I turned the hard drive enclosure on and nothing happened at all- LEDs didnt come on,computer didn't even acknowledge etc. I thought at first that maybe the power/plug had stopped working so I bought a new hard drive enclosure today. Connected up as instructed, plugged USB into my PC, turned enclosure on- nothing, no LEDs and again computer does not acknowledge. I'm assuming now that the hard drive must be damaged.... My question is, is there anything I can do to fix it? If not, is there an easy way to recover the data on the hard drive? There are some important photos on there that I thought I had backed up but I can't find the back up now... Starting to panic I might have lost these photos forever. Any help appreciated

[Wolf]

Hi Laura

 

Welcome to FPCH

 

Well I could understand one enclosure failing but not two.

 

You could try hooking up the drive internally if you have a desktop machine.

 

If it's a laptop then try something like this;

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/IOMAX-SATA-Adapter-Power-Drive/dp/B001A5SK56

 

In all honesty though I think the drive is dead.

[Laura_jayne_m]

Thanks. I fear too that the drive is dead. If so, is there anyway at all to get data off it?

Sorry to sound stupid but how do I connect it to my PC ?

 

Thanks again,

Laura

[Wolf]

Do you have a laptop or a desktop (tower) unit Laura?

[Laura_jayne_m]

It's a tower

[Wolf]

If your tower is fairly modern then the main drive will be a SATA connection but what I need to know is if you have any IDE connectors on the motherboard.

 

If you do then do you have a length of IDE ribbon cable to connect the drive?

 

I'm just trying to save you money buy not buying the item I mentioned earlier when it could be a waste if the drive is totally dead.

[Plastic Nev]

Hi Laura, First off, try Wolf's suggestions first but if no luck, there is just one other way that may kick it into life.

first, wrap and seal the hard drive in a polythene bag, leaving a connecting cable to come out for connection later, then put the drive into the freezer and leave for at least four hours. Once out of the freezer use the connecting cable to connect to the computer and while still in a frozen state see if it will run up then. If it will, as quickly as possible copy as much of your stuff that you can, if it stops running, re-freeze it till you get everything you can.

This method has been used many times to rescue important data by quite a few different technicians.

Be aware it doesn't always work, but is worth a try.

If the freezer or Wolfs suggestions are not a go, I am afraid it is specialist assistance, which is expensive.

Nev.