My Dead Hard Drive Story
Several years ago, I experienced a hard drive failure. My laptop acted strangely. When the problems persisted after a reboot, I knew it was more than an overstretched RAM. I immediately started to back up recent files. About half an hour later, the hard drive failed audibly and the laptop wouldn’t boot anymore.
I had backups, but not of everything. Just weeks earlier my backup drive had reached capacity. To back up important work files, I had decided to delete my personal photos. Ironically, I had already purchased a new external drive, but I had not taken the time to create a full backup. Now my photos were lost and I was devastated.
Over the next couple of weeks, I researched ways to recover the data and considered doing everything under the sun—and did most of it—to revive the old hard drive. This article is the result of that effort.
External Hard Drive? Check the Enclosure and Cables
When your external hard drive fails, it can do so for all the same reasons an internal drive can fail. Sometimes, however, it’s not the drive that stops working, but a connection within the enclosure! And in that case, the drive is easy to revive.
Before you open up any hardware, be sure to discharge your body’s static electricity, i.e. ground yourself. Remove the hard drive from its casing and use an IDE/SATA data cableand power connector to install the drive internally on your desktop computer. Alternatively, you can get an IDE/SATA to USB adapter or a new USB enclosure, so you can hook the drive up externally via USB.
The image above shows a SATA connector (front) and an IDE connector (back).
Once you re-connected the external drive to your computer, given the enclosure was the culprit, Windows should recognize it and assign a drive letter. The drive should pop up under File Explorer > This PC. You can also check under Disk drives in the Device Manager (press Windows + X to find the option).
If the drive didn’t show up anywhere, you can try to manually find your drive to further narrow down the issue; the process is described further down.
Internal Hard Drive? Check All Cable Connections
Sometimes, it’s not the drive that failed, but the physical connection of cables that connect the drive with the computer’s motherboard. You can only wish that this is your problem! So before you hire someone, make sure the data and power cables are firmly connected on both ends.
To prevent hazards to your health, it’s essential to turn off the computer and unplug the power cord. As mentioned above, you also need to discharge your body’s static electricity, i.e. ground yourself before you get working on your computer’s internals. Then open up the case and make sure all connections are OK.
Our guide on how to physically install an internal hard drive shows which connections to watch out for.
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