external hard drive problems

[hexx311]

ok so I have a customer that brought in a external hdd that they placed all their pictures on but of course do not have a backup of. So when you hook up the usb to a computer it takes forever to recognize and accessing the drive is beyond slow. I am guessing that it was not ejected properly and has some sort of file corruption.

I tried to use ubuntu live cd and pull the files off but that errors out a little less than windows but still it errors out. I have tried photorec but that has been to slow to be effective. I have tried windows chkdsk but that has been to no avail. Any other suggestions?

thanks

 

[14049752]

I doubt it's file corruption. Failing hardware is more likely based on the little you've said.

If the data is important to the customer, my suggestion to you is to stop everything you're doing with it....talk to the customer, inform them that the drive is failing and your further attempts at retrieving data could make it worse. If they consider the data worthwhile, suggest a data recovery specialist. If it's not worth the amount data recovery companies charge, and they're aware of the risks, continue trying your normal means.

 

[Encrypted Existence]

Perhaps the drive is bad? Give SeaTools a shot.

 

[mraikes]

You might try removing it from the case and accessing the drive directly.

I've had several occasions where the case was bad, but the drive was fine.

 

[hexx311]

I already told the customer that anything i did from this point on could cause further damage to the data. But they told me to go ahead anyway.

I had not considered removing it from its holder, its one of those WD passports and I haven't removed one of them before.

 

[14049752]

Most WD Passport drives (2.5") have the usb interface on the drive pcb. Removing it from the case won't do you any good if it's one of those.

 

[PC-Technix]

I had the same issues. I stripped it down, went straight into mobo, and bam it took off.

The one I had would power up and down, click etc. I thought it was a bad drive, so I did the above.

It seems it wasn't getting the power it needed to get it running.

 

[glricht]

I had not considered removing it from its holder, its one of those WD passports and I haven't removed one of them before.

Agree with the other posts about removing it from the case and working with it there. Have had to do that a number of times and in all but one case, was able to get the data just fine.

However, if it's like other WD Pasports, you can't "remove" the HD from the case, you have to pry apart the case because it's glued together. Kiss the case goodbye!