I accidentally knocked my external hard drive off my desk from a height of about 30-40 inches, and now it's not being detected at all. The drive doesn't make any noise when plugged in, and I can't see it in disk management. The casing looks fine, and the power light is on, but there's no sign of life from the drive. Is there any hope, or have I lost my data for good?
3 Answers
Check to see if it appears in disk management, and if you haven’t already, try plugging it into a different USB port or use another cable. Sometimes the cord can get damaged when yanked out. If it still doesn’t work, try it on another computer to see if it gets detected there.
It sounds like after taking a fall, your drive might be damaged and not starting up properly anymore. If there’s important data on there, your best bet is to take it to a data recovery specialist. They might be able to help, but there's no guaranteed fix.
I didn’t expect it to break from just a fall. I thought I heard the usual sound when I plugged it in after, so I was hopeful.
It’s unfortunate, but drops like that can definitely cause internal damage. If you haven’t backed up your files recently, this could be a tough lesson learned. Just remember to keep backups in the future if you can!
I don’t have another cable, but I can definitely try it on a different computer!