Dead hard drive data retrieval What is a dead external hard drive?

What are the advantages of external hard drive compared with internal drive?

1. It’s  small size and portability: Easy to carry. You can carry is as mobile storage device.

2. It’s large capacity and convenience in transmitting data that avoid transmission through network. That also guarantees the security of data. But external drive whose capacity over 160 GB need a power supply.
3. It’s faster transmission speed. The external hard drive has a faster speed.

However, these advantages will improve the possibility of external drive’s damage. When we found the external hard drive has dead, what should we do?

The system will prompts that “You need to format the disk in drive I: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?”

If files on dead hard drive are very important, you should to restore them first. Try to find a effective way to recover them and at the same time do not do any operations which may cause second data loss.

If there are no important data on the dead hard drive, you can directly format the dead driver to get it work properly. Click “ Format disk”.

Why your external hard drive is dead?

Just like your internal hard drive, the external hard disk may also have physical failure and logical failure so that you cannot access to your data. And we know that the external hard drive is easier to have failures than the internal one.

Physical failure for a dead hard drive

1. Head damage. The head assembly has some part damaged so that it cannot read or write. Dust on platter, wear of head may cause head damage.

2. Hard drive circuit damage. The circuit board damaged or has a short circuit.

3. Drive surface damage. The scratches or demagnetizing on surface.

4. Aging of chips cause dead drive.

Logical failure for a dead hard drive

1. Virus infection.

2. Improper drive format or drive letter format.

3. USB cable problem of external drive. The USB cable is used as data transmission line and power supply line. Long cable may increase the resistance and data interference, then the drive cannot work properly. Therefore, the cable should be as short as possible. And you’d better to connect it with computer through the rear interface of computer case.

4. External power supply problems. The power supply provided by USB cable is not enough for an external hard drive over 10 GB. Power shortage may cause hard drive failure. So it’s necessary  for external hard drive to have a DC stabilized power supply.

5. Improper pull and plug method. Although today’s external hard disk supports hot swap capability, you still should be careful when you are ready to remove the drive. Only your drive has been safely exit from your computer can you unplug the USB cable. In case the sudden power shortage cause serious damage to drive.

Recover files from hard drive is not difficult. As there are so many possibilities for data loss, you should back up your data regularly. This is your best choice to guarantee your data security. If your external hard disk are dead, do not format it, you should try to find a proper way to recover the data first. Whether you try to use a data recovery software by yourself or as the data recovery professionals  to help you. Avoid data overwritten is the most important.