Recover to external drive?

[ScarySquirrel]

Hello.

One of my Seagate SATA drives has failed and I want to recover the files to another drive. Except I don't have one big enough.

I am looking at getting this - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-112-SE&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=911

For the purpose of this and also my laptop only has 6gb of space left due to my photography, so I will back that up too.

Anyway, the point of this thread. When the external drive is plugged in, does it just show as another drive in My Computer. Will I be able to recover all of the files from the broken drive to the external drive no problem (with the exception of some corrupt files probably)

Also, why might my internal drive of broken? It is only about 2 years old, and was only used as a backup. But now when I go to My Computer it see's it there, but thinks that it has no storage and I cannot access it.

Through the recovery programme I can see all the files though.

 

[ByteJuggler]

It's impossible to guess why your hard drive might've broken without more information/some careful detective work. Even then, any guess will be just that, a guess, and you'll probably never be 100% sure.

Sometimes they just fail because there was some weakness in the drive that finally came to the fore. In other instances it may have been brought about by operational circumstances. Was the drive ever dropped/moved about a lot while on? Was it kept sufficiently ventilated/at a reasonable operating temperature?

In the end, hard drives break, it's what they do. That's why you always need to backup or have some form of disaster recovery plan.

Re your current situation: Do not try to fix/run chkdsk/try to do anything that writes to the drive. Make sure whatever recovery software you decide to use does the same, and recovers/writes ONLY to your external disk only. Personally if I was you, I'd probably image the disk first to another disk, then recover files from the imaged disk, however I know you then effecively need potentially 3 disks so is not always easily possible. It does however minimise the amount of work you're subjecting your disk to. In some cases you also then find that a simple chkdsk on the imaged disk can fix the filesytem and can avoid having to run through a lengthy recovery process with recovery software. (What software are you using?)

 

[rpstewart]

Anyway, the point of this thread. When the external drive is plugged in, does it just show as another drive in My Computer. Will I be able to recover all of the files from the broken drive to the external drive no problem (with the exception of some corrupt files probably)

Yup, it'll appear like any other drive so there shouldn't be any problems recovering to it.

Also, why might my internal drive of broken?

HDDs are mechanical devices with rediculously fine tolerances*, they're far more fragile and prone to failing than other PC parts.

*The guy who invented GMR heads for IBM once described an HDD's operation like flying a jet at 32000mph at an altitude of 3 feet and counting every blade of grass as it went by.

 

[ScarySquirrel]

Thanks for the answers.

As for the software I am using, I can't remember as I am at work. I will check tonight.

I think I will just get the external drive and give it a go. I don't know how to image a drive and I can't afford to buy another drive big enough, I can only justify buying the 500Gb external as I will use it for day to day back up from now on

I need to wait until pay day though

Another quick question. Does that external HDD I linked to need external power? if it does, can you recommend any similar priced 500Gb drives that don't require external power?

 

[ScarySquirrel]

I have decided to buy another cheap SATA 250Gb internal drive to replace the broken one.

I think I then might get a WD passport as they look pretty cool and don't require external power.It will be great for my photography backups

 

[rpstewart]

Another quick question. Does that external HDD I linked to need external power? if it does, can you recommend any similar priced 500Gb drives that don't require external power?

Technically irrelevant given your next post but I'll answer anyway for completeness.

Yes, that external needs a separate power supply. Anything which uses a 3.5" HDD will need an external supply because the drive needs both 12V and 5V supplies with about 20W used across the two rails. USB can only supply 2.5W at 5V (500mA) so can only be used to power 2.5" HDDs, even then a double headed USB cable or a separate USB to power cable is normally supplied to allow the device to pull power from 2 USB ports for stability.

 

[ScarySquirrel]

Technically irrelevant given your next post but I'll answer anyway for completeness.

Yes, that external needs a separate power supply. Anything which uses a 3.5" HDD will need an external supply because the drive needs both 12V and 5V supplies with about 20W used across the two rails. USB can only supply 2.5W at 5V (500mA) so can only be used to power 2.5" HDDs, even then a double headed USB cable or a separate USB to power cable is normally supplied to allow the device to pull power from 2 USB ports for stability.

That's interesting. So this WD passport drive I mentioned, what is the connection like on that? Single USB or one of these double USB things you mention?

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for taking the time to help me out

 

[rpstewart]

Despite owning one I've no idea what cables come with it - they were missing from mine

I use a double headed USB cable which came with another external drive.