Ext Hard Disk doesn't boot but is partially seen

[durbatuluk]

Hello,

I have a Western Digital Elements 500 Gb external Hard Drive. It has been giving me a hard time today. First it wasn't recognized as a working HD, just as a broken one which had to be formatted. In another port it was recognized like normal. Then it disconnected itself and came back as a unreadable disk. To try and salvage my files I tried a lot of recovery programs, with which only one program saw the files, but had to be purchased for recovery. After trying somethings else, which included reconnecting my HD. It stopped working as a HD.
Now the light starts flickering, the pc recognizes a external hard disk being connected, it installes WD software, but it never sees the disk itself, the HD itself doesn't even run (I can not hear he disk spinning). Is there anyway to solve it in a software-way, I can't really be spending a lot of cash on recovery agencies.

Kind regards,

Joost

 

[herqulees]

Well if you can still get it to connect to the computer (whether it looks normal or says it needs to be formatted) download HD Tune ( HD Tune website ) they have a free trial and see what it looks like under the health tab for your portable hard drive. Do you see anything in yellow or red? Is/was the drive ever making any clicking sounds? If you can't get it to connect to the software then another option if you don't care/don't have a warranty anymore you can open the case and take the hard drive out, then hook it up inside your desktop to see if it will show up.

 

[andrew129260]

Try the following recovery software that is free and will allow you to restore your data:
Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

Mini tool recovery: Free, (but limited to 1gb recover)

http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/

I have used both. They work great

 

[jumanji]

Hi durbartuluk,

What software did your WD external HDD install?

With the WD external HDD plugged in, take a screenshot of Disk Management and upload it. (Please make sure to disconnect all other USB drives.)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html