I'm dealing with a frustrating situation with my hard drive. It suddenly stopped working and isn't showing up on my computer at all. Initially, I thought there might be a loose connection, so I powered down my PC, removed the hard drive, cleaned the port, and reconnected it. Still no luck.
To troubleshoot, I tried connecting the HDD to a couple of other computers to see if it would work, since my friend had a similar issue where her HDD worked on my PC. Unfortunately, my drive is still not being recognized anywhere.
The drive itself looks great—no scratches or signs of damage, and it's never been dropped. When I start the PC, there are no sounds or vibrations from the hard drive. This is a 500 GB Seagate from my older setup, and I really need to recover a lot of important data from it. I'm reaching out for advice on what steps I should take next. Any help would be appreciated!
5 Answers
Just to clarify, make sure you know the difference between SSDs and HDDs because you mentioned cleaning a 'port', which sounds like a common mix-up. If it is indeed an HDD, consider using a tool like DDrescue, especially if it's surface issues. But don’t keep turning the drive on—it could worsen the damage. You’ll likely need another drive larger than yours to copy data onto if you're able to recover anything.
If you didn't back up your data and have something critical on that drive, your best bet might be to reach out to a professional data recovery service. However, be warned—this can get quite expensive, potentially starting from two to three times the cost of a new computer!
Just a heads up, I know someone who had a critical server drive go down and it ended up costing them around $10,000 for recovery. It can get really pricey, so keep that in mind!
It sounds like you've looked after the exterior, but keep in mind that hard drives can still fail internally even if they look perfect from the outside. If you manage to get it working again, back up your data immediately—never attempt to open a drive without it being properly protected. Otherwise, you'll likely need a professional service, and costs can be $500 to $1000+ for even a chance to recover files.
Can you hear it spin when you power the PC on? If it's a hard drive (and not an SSD), check while the case is open to see if it spins up. If it doesn’t, it might indicate a failure in the motor or power. On the bright side, your data may still be intact, but repairs can be tricky.

I see what you mean about the cleaning! I think the OP might be mixing up the terms a bit, which can happen if you're not super experienced with hardware. Understanding the difference is definitely important for troubleshooting.