need external hard drive help

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Pastry

Professional Pastry
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I bought an external hard drive about 2 months or so ago, I/O Magic I250HD35, and it all of a sudden has stopped working. It makes this weird clicking sound now when I turn it on and it isn't recognized by my computer it seems anymore.

I looked around Google.com for some information, but couldn't find jack shit. If it's dead, is there anyway I can get the information off, I have a ton of important information of the hard drive that I really need.
 
The clicking sound I think you're hearing usually an indication the hard drive is damaged. It means that the HDD keeps seeking but can't find/pull the data normally.

My suggestion would be to pull the HDD out of the external enclosure, hook it up to an internal, and see if you can read any data. Otherwise you might need a data recovery service. I think bestbuy does one for really cheap.
 
Sometimes if you jar the drive the head will start to work properly for a little while, and believe it or not, a lot of people say you can sometimes get the drive to work again for a short time by freezing a freezer (put it in a plastic bag) for a few hours, then dropping it about 6 inches to a foot.

I do a LOT of data backups and come across this problem somewhat frequently. I usually try to drop the drive a few inches while it's on (not trying to read or write) or tapping it hard. Cycling power will sometimes (pretty rare) get the drive to work long enough to copy the data.

If none of that works, you're pretty much out of luck. If the external is only 2 months old, you will be inside the manufacturer's warranty and can get a replacement, but they will not recover your data for free. Sometimes the store you bought it from will honor the manufacturer's warranty if they don't offer their own extended warranty the item (ie, Best Buy). I would check the warranty information before opening the drive, too, as it might void the warranty. It sucks when this happens, but it's got to happen to someone.
 
I don't have my receipt though anymore, I got it about 2 months ago, didn't expect it to break out of nowhere. :(

I'll try some of these suggestions though, thanks.
 
Pastry said:
I bought an external hard drive about 2 months or so ago, I/O Magic I250HD35, and it all of a sudden has stopped working. It makes this weird clicking sound now when I turn it on and it isn't recognized by my computer it seems anymore.

I looked around Google.com for some information, but couldn't find jack shit. If it's dead, is there anyway I can get the information off, I have a ton of important information of the hard drive that I really need.
Click to expand...

Actually, just porn.

My external went down once but it ended up being the wallsocket it was plugged into. Did you try changing that?
 
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