I did something stupid..

[MrGetBad]

Recently I got a new case and PSU for my current desktop-- As I was doing stuff I accidentally dropped my 1TB secondary drive on the ground.   Initially the comp booted up and everything seemed fine.  Started playing some classic DOOM and it suddenly froze.  Hard reset, and then Windows 10 did a scan and repair--  I got to stage 1 100%   - but hung up at 95% on the other side.  I let it sit for a while and nothing happened.   I did another hard reset and windows would not load anymore.  I disconnected the secondary driver and my primary SSD booted no issues--   I have alot of my old photos and computer stuff on that secondary drive.   What is the best way for me to try and salvage some of it.  Keep in mind each time i connect the drive the computer wont load Windows..   Thanks in advance. 

 

[waterjug]

hmm i'm no data recovery expert but maybe try some kind of sata to usb adapter?

[Bombastinator]

*reacting to the headline only* I’ve done that several times.

 

One immediate though is “so don’t load windows” build a quicko Linux liveCD on a thumb drive with disk repair and recovery stuff and boot off that.   You’ll want another reasonably large size media partition or something to dump the files you can recover (if any) onto.  That drive (I’m assuming it’s mechanical) is likely not long for this world.

 

i have a friend who used to claim that the moral of every story ever told by anyone is “always make backups”. This one seems to qualify.

[Pickles von Brine]

First off, if the data is REALLY important and you cannot live without it, stop what you are doing and send it into the pros. We have resources and experience to better control the drive and its behavior far beyond what any computer shop or home user can. 

If not, proceed with below. 

You could try a drive adapter to see if you can get stuff off. A program called RoadKill's unstoppable copier is pretty good at pushing through errors. However, hard drives REALLY do not like drops. It is possible the heads got damaged, platter damaged occured or any number of things. 

If the drive gives you any fits or farts, do not keep hammering it. If it starts to click, freeze up or anything STOP IMMEDIATELY. You risk causing more harm than good. 

Back when I use to do data recovery professionally, we use to get these all the time and we always recommended to let us pros deal with it. However, that costs money and not everyone has it. So, be SUPER careful. If there is even an inkling of an issue, halt and send it into a data recovery lab. If you haven't hammered the drive too much, the likelihood of recovery increases but there are too many unknowns. 

Honestly, I am more worried about platter damage or damaged heads causing platter damage. Drives do NOT do well with drops. 

If it gets to the point where the drive is behaving at all in a way that is listed above, send it to one of these guys (no particular order):

SalvageData
Drive Savers
We Recover Data

[NineEyeRon]

Google photo backup is free, I’ve got my photos and docs in 3 places all fully up to date

[MrGetBad]

I appreciate the advice--  I think i going to just scrap this HDD and try and find the old comps I has all these photos on and re-download them. 

[silicon_lottery]

R.I.P. SSD.

Late to the thread, but it would be best to scrap it and see if you could sent it to the pros for data recovery. If it's not that important, take a deep breath - everything's OK.

Hang in there, man.