Problems: External USB and
Firewire hard disks basically consist of a case containing a
standard IDE hard disk with a USB-to-IDE or Firewire-to-IDE
interface adaptor. Thus, these units are prone to all the usual
problems relating to IDE hard drives plus some others that the
external case and interface may bring. The most common additional
problem we have noticed with these drives is their tendancy
to overheat. This is due to inadequate ventilation on the external
case. Early external hard drives didn't contain any ventilation
at all, modern devices often contain a small fan inside the
actual case to combat temperature build up.
Symptoms: The drive will suddenly die and
not be recognised by the BIOS, or the computer will appear to
start running slowly and noises from the external hard disk
may be heard.
Cause: Failure of these units is often
(but not always) heat related. They are also more likely to
suffer impact damage as it's far easier for these drives to
fall out of bags or off of tables etc.
Recovery possibilities: Entirely dependent
on the nature of the problem. Heat associated problems are often
easier to tackle than impact damage problems.
We are currently seeing
many high capacity hard drives (> 200GB) that have
become faulty and make a ticking sound when powered
up. This is almost always indicative of a head failure,
internal to the hard drive. Recovery of data from drives
with these symptoms is difficult and don't let anyone
tell you otherwise - please phone for guidance and an
idea of price.
Click
here to read more about clicking / ticking hard disk
drives |
Do Not: Under no circumstances should you
continue to use the device as you may cause further damage to
the unit. Also, you should not allow the system to run
a repair utility on the drive (such as Scandisk / Chkdsk / Norton
etc) - this can often render recoverable data unrecoverable
Read our page specific to failures
on and data recovery from LaCie hard disk storage devices
Read our page specific to failure
and data recovery from Iomega Zip and Jaz disks and devices
Related symptom: Click here if
your hard
disk drive is making a beeping or bleeping sound
What if I have one of these drives but the
symptoms are different?: This is quite possible. These drives
are still prone to all the other problems hard disks suffer
from ie. mechnical failure, logical failure, bad sectors etc.
What should I do?: Call the Data Clinic
and talk your problem through with us on 0870 140 2525,
or fill
out our auto-form and we'll call you back
> Back to the MAIN data
recovery page
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