External Hard Drive Recovery
Professional Recovery of data from external drives
Has your external hard drive stopped working? Are your files missing, or is your computer asking you to format a drive that previously worked without problems?
We provide professional external hard drive data recovery for clients who need to retrieve important data from failed, damaged or inaccessible drives. If your drive is no longer recognised by your computer, isn’t being shown with the correct capacity, is making unusual noises, has accidentally been formatting or has file system corruption, we can provide you with a free evaluation of the issue and advise you on your recovery options.
Can data be recovered from an external hard drive?
In many cases, data can be recovered from an external hard drive that has stopped working. The chances of success depend on the underlying fault, the condition of the drive and whether any data has been overwritten or otherwise made inaccessible by processes such as TRIM.
External hard drives fail for a number of reasons, these including mechanical damage, electronic faults, corrupted file systems. A drive that is not recognised by Windows, macOS or Linux may still contain a considerable amount of recoverable data.
The first step to recovery is identifying the likely cause of the problem and to determine the safest approach. If your drive is making clicking, beeping or scraping noises. Unplug it immediately and leave it unpowered.
Many off-brand external hard drives use reconditioned drives inside their enclosure. These are drives which the manufacturer has rejected for standard daily computer use making recovery potentially challenging.
Common external hard drive problems we recover
External hard drive not recognised
If your external hard drive no longer appears in File Explorer, Finder or Disk Management and it is not making any abnormal noises.
The problem could involve the USB connection, external enclosure, the drive electronics or firmware or if the drive is a larger desktop external device any external power source used.
Clicking, beeping or unusual noises
Clicking, grinding or repeated beeping is an indication of a hardware problem. Continued attempts to power up a physically damaged drive may make the damage worse and result in permanent data loss.
If your drive is making unusual noises and contains important files, disconnect it avoid trying recovery software or repeatedly reconnecting it. Do not follow advice from old Youtube videos showing opening the drives or moving heads.
External hard drive asking to be formatted
Windows may display a message requiring that the drive must be formatted before it can be used. This can occur when the file system is damaged or cannot be read correctly.
Do not format the drive if you need the data. Formatting, initialising or any subsequent use may reduce the chances of recovery, in many modern drives doing so can result in total data loss.
External hard drive showing as RAW or unallocated
Drives that appears as RAW or unallocaed in Windows disk manager may have a damaged file system, missing partition information or another more serious physical problems.
Do not create new partitions, formatting the drive or running repair operations. Writing any data to the drive may result in permanent data loss. Drives in this condition need to be examined carefully to determine the cause of the fault.
Drive disconnecting, freezing or running very slowly
Repeated disconnections, extremely slow file transfers or your computer freezing when the drive is connected is an indication of either a connection problem or a failing drive.
If the problem persists after changing cable or port unplug the drive and have the drive examined professionally. If caught at this stage of failure many drives can be fully recovered at minimal cost via entry level service tiers.