Recovering data from external

Have a friends two 1TB external HDD's (LaCies) here as he asked me if I could get them going ? One is working fine the other is dead as - now the problem is how are we going to retrieve the data contained on the dead one. By dead I mean it doesn't spin up and I cannot find anyway of opening the enclosures to see if there are dry joints on the power in side.


I think he has a lot of pics and videos on it and as the one that is going is almost full I am thinking this one would be too.

Any ideas anyoen please?

Unfortunately, the only way you will find out if its the drive itself is to somehow get the casing open and try it in another enclosure, on the assumption you have swapped cables and ports etc.

ibshaw said:

Unfortunately, the only way you will find out if its the drive itself is to somehow get the casing open and try it in another enclosure, on the assumption you have swapped cables and ports etc.

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Thanks ibshaw ok mate I shall have to get onto the owner and see if I can break the case cos I reckon the only way in is with a hammer and screwdriver LOL!!

The case looks to me to be sealed shut as I can find no obvious clips so I guess he will either agree to that or lose the lot unless a tech shop can do something.

Are the external drives USB ? is that their only source of power or do you plug in a separate power source as well ? do they have detachable cables ? if there is no evidence of the bad drive spinning, it may be a power problem and not the drive itself - I guess if you have tried each in the same setup and one is dead you will need to get into the bare drive and try it in another enclosure before you can be certain if its a duff drive or the interface circuitry that's causing the problem. There is also the possibility the USB power may not have enough current so you could tried a powered hub - just a suggestion.

John even if you manage to remove the drive from the enclosure you may find it has no standard drive inside. It may be a part of its case and have everything soldered together.

After trying the steps ibshaw laid out and it doesn't spin up, I would think its dead and gone along with the blokes data.

If you cannot open the casing, try the Geek Squad at your local BestBuy. Maybe they have an idea.

Taking it out of the casing will only help if the controller is dead or if it does not get power. But if the motor is dead, that will not help.

No Best Buy in Australia Wolfgang.

Whats the make and model of the external enclosure?

Britton30 said:

No Best Buy in Australia Wolfgang.

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I guess you are right. But they probably have a similar shop.

Anthony said:

Whats the make and model of the external enclosure?

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LaCie and I cannot make out any model although I could plug one in and use Speccy to "see it".

Inside is a Hitachi HD T721010SLA360

are those self adhesive feet on there? If so the screws will be underneath.

pillboxhunter said:

are those self adhesive feet on there? If so the screws will be underneath.

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Yep they are pillbox I have one taken off but only reveals a very small hole.

The end opposite the switch and sockets though look as if they have lugs that click into place on the metal carrier and I thought they could be pulled back and the end lifted upwards so that the switch would slide out towards the back but no luck so far.
I am guessing that the metal casing the drive is attached to slides into the plastic outer shell and clips permanently inside that plastic shell. Plus I am also guessing that there maybe a fixing of some description on the underside of the top of the plastic shell that also clips into that metal casing making it me proof LOL!!

Might have to remove all those rubber feet but am not holding my breath re screws eh?