Hard drive external device not functioning properly.
Hard drive external device not functioning properly.
Hi, Your hard drive stopped functioning after your roommate unplugged it during a movie. Now it doesn’t appear and starts clicking at the beginning, unlike before. I’ve tried connecting it to two different computers, but none work properly—on one, the mouse and keyboard stop working when you plug it in. Thanks for reaching out!
Disassembling the device will destroy it. Maintain the seal and avoid opening it. If there are important files, you must bring them to a data restoration company for repair; otherwise, it’s likely lost permanently since it was working properly at first.
The drive could have suffered a head crash because of an unexpected power drop. Typically, HDDs are shielded from such issues by using leftover spindle power to pull the heads back. Still, a head crash doesn’t always indicate HDD failure. I’d inspect the assembly and see if the device appears in the BIOS and Windows Drive Manager. It’s possible the partition became corrupted. Alternatively, you might connect the drive directly to a computer using a SATA cable.
When I encounter this problem, I follow what leclod recommended and attempt to boot from a Linux live environment. It seems Linux handles partially corrupted file systems better in some cases. Once the data is removed from the drive, I would discard it. I've noticed others face this issue, then reformat the drive and continue using it just to repeat the problem.