Recover data from crashed USB drive

[Christoph]

I have an external USB drive that crashed. What's happening is that
whenever I plug it in, the drive light flashes as if the OS is trying to
access it but after a while that stops and the drive never shows up in
Windows Explorer.

Like an idiot, I didn't back up any of the data that was on it and I've been
looking around for utilities that can help me recover the data. The problem
with those that I've found so far is that they all seem to require that the
OS see the drive; that it registeres as a drive letter. So while those
utilities might be all well and fine for recovering files that were deleted
from a USB drive, they don't seem to offer much help when the drive has
crashed and/or the OS doesn't seem to see it.

So I'm wondering if any of you can offer advice on how I might be able to
recover the data from my pitiful external USB drive?

thnx,
Christoph

 

[Malke]

I have an external USB drive that crashed. What's happening is that
whenever I plug it in, the drive light flashes as if the OS is trying to
access it but after a while that stops and the drive never shows up in
Windows Explorer.

Like an idiot, I didn't back up any of the data that was on it and I've
been
looking around for utilities that can help me recover the data. The
problem with those that I've found so far is that they all seem to require
that the
OS see the drive; that it registeres as a drive letter. So while those
utilities might be all well and fine for recovering files that were
deleted from a USB drive, they don't seem to offer much help when the
drive has crashed and/or the OS doesn't seem to see it.

So I'm wondering if any of you can offer advice on how I might be able to
recover the data from my pitiful external USB drive?

If the drive can't be seen in more than one computer, then it has physically
failed. The only way to get the data off is to send it to a professional
data recovery company like Drive Savers (my preference) or Seagate Data
Recovery. General prices run from $500USD on up. Drive Savers recovered all
the data on a failed laptop drive for one of my clients and it cost $2,700.
He thought it was worth the money; only you know what your data is worth. I
understand that some insurance companies are now covering data recovery
charges so check with yours.

Drive Savers - http://www.drivesavers.com
Seagate Data Recovery Services - https://www.seagatedatarecovery.com/

Malke

 

[Paul]

I have an external USB drive that crashed. What's happening is that
whenever I plug it in, the drive light flashes as if the OS is trying to
access it but after a while that stops and the drive never shows up in
Windows Explorer.

Like an idiot, I didn't back up any of the data that was on it and I've been
looking around for utilities that can help me recover the data. The problem
with those that I've found so far is that they all seem to require that the
OS see the drive; that it registeres as a drive letter. So while those
utilities might be all well and fine for recovering files that were deleted
from a USB drive, they don't seem to offer much help when the drive has
crashed and/or the OS doesn't seem to see it.

So I'm wondering if any of you can offer advice on how I might be able to
recover the data from my pitiful external USB drive?

thnx,
Christoph

You can remove the drive from the enclosure, and connect the drive to
an internal IDE cable or SATA cable in your computer. That will eliminate
a problem with the USB enclosure as being the source of the problem. But
most of the time, it is going to be a problem with the hard drive itself.

If you don't know how to do any of that, take it to a shop.

Paul