Can putting your external Hard Disk in a drawer cause it to fail

[FarhanAli]

Was trying to backup my data to an external 1tb hdd by seagate, in the beginning it was slow then it errored out, now if i plug it in i can only get into a folder then it crashes plzz help 

[Bismut]

That sounds like the drive just died. How old is it, and how much do you open the drawer/cause vibrations to the drive (i.e. open other drawers or so)?

[FarhanAli]

Its been 2 years, and the i pretty much use the drawer daily 5 to 6 times . I never thought that just sliding the drawer would damage the hard disk like this

[DigitalGoat]

42 minutes ago, FarhanAli said:

Was trying to backup my data to an external 1tb hdd by seagate, in the beginning it was slow then it errored out, now if i plug it in i can only get into a folder then it crashes plzz help 

Is it possible to try a different cable to connect the drive? Could you easily remove the drive from the enclosure and try connecting directly to the PC?

Try an app like HDSentinel (there is a trial version) to view the drive status, you can also try CrystalDiskInfo to see the drives S.M.A.R.T data.

Just storing a drive in a drawer will not cause damage, however as the poster above me says extreme vibration of the drawer/ cabinet could cause damage, but it would have to be significant. Rolling up the drives cable too tight could cause damage to the cable.

[FarhanAli]

4 minutes ago, DigitalGoat said:

Is it possible to try a different cable to connect the drive? Could you easily remove the drive from the enclosure and try connecting directly to the PC?

Try an app like HDSentinel (there is a trial version) to view the drive status, you can also try CrystalDiskInfo to see the drives S.M.A.R.T data.

Just storing a drive in a drawer will not cause damage, however as the poster above me says extreme vibration of the drawer/ cabinet could cause damage, but it would have to be significant. Rolling up the drives cable too tight could cause damage to the cable.

I have tried 2 cables both of them work with my external ssd enclosure but not with the hdd also its not like its not showing up its just that i cannot view or modify any of my files i can just see my folders, also i have crystaldiskinfo it does not show up there

 

[DigitalGoat]

1 minute ago, FarhanAli said:

I have tried 2 cables both of them work with my external ssd enclosure but not with the hdd also its not like its not showing up its just that i cannot view or modify any of my files i can just see my folders

 

Ok, so use an app like those I suggest to see what is going on with the drive, maybe there is a hard issue with the drive or maybe the file system is corrupt. You can try running a disk check with Windows just to see what happens.

[WilliamsKnights]

49 minutes ago, FarhanAli said:

Its been 2 years, and the i pretty much use the drawer daily 5 to 6 times . I never thought that just sliding the drawer would damage the hard disk like this

you don't mention if the external drive is mechanical or not.   However later you refer to this as HDD and another as SSD. So I will assume mechanical drive.

 

Did you have the drive powered on when in the drawer or just stored there?

If powered on then yes this is possible. As moving the drive when on is a big no-no.

 

However same case should also be made when powering off the drive. To many people just unplug drives and immediately pick them up to store.  mechanical drives need a little time to park heads and stop drives spinning.  moving to quickly can cause issue.

 

 

 

 

 

[FarhanAli]

52 minutes ago, WilliamsKnights said:

you don't mention if the external drive is mechanical or not.   However later you refer to this as HDD and another as SSD. So I will assume mechanical drive.

 

Did you have the drive powered on when in the drawer or just stored there?

If powered on then yes this is possible. As moving the drive when on is a big no-no.

 

However same case should also be made when powering off the drive. To many people just unplug drives and immediately pick them up to store.  mechanical drives need a little time to park heads and stop drives spinning.  moving to quickly can cause issue.

 

 

 

 

 

It is a Mechanical Hard Disk and yup its was powered off, also i keep almost every thing backed up in it so i was always extra careful about it, i've talked to seagate they have provided a software lets see what happens

[FarhanAli]

5 hours ago, DigitalGoat said:

Ok, so use an app like those I suggest to see what is going on with the drive, maybe there is a hard issue with the drive or maybe the file system is corrupt. You can try running a disk check with Windows just to see what happens.

I tried Crystal Disk Info it got detected and this is what it shows 

[DigitalGoat]

2 hours ago, FarhanAli said:

I tried Crystal Disk Info it got detected and this is what it shows 

Reallocated sectors count being so high is worrying, it is normally a sign the disk is about to die, there are only so many spare sectors for the drive to map data to, once they are all used up there will be constant corruption and data loss.

You can try running Windows check disk on the drive to see if you can consolidate data into good sectors for copying off to another drive or a 3rd party recovery app (Testdisk or Recuva I believe are two often recommended on these forums).

If you can get your data moved to another disk then I would consider this disk to be untrustworthy and therefore dead.

[FarhanAli]

14 hours ago, DigitalGoat said:

Reallocated sectors count being so high is worrying, it is normally a sign the disk is about to die, there are only so many spare sectors for the drive to map data to, once they are all used up there will be constant corruption and data loss.

You can try running Windows check disk on the drive to see if you can consolidate data into good sectors for copying off to another drive or a 3rd party recovery app (Testdisk or Recuva I believe are two often recommended on these forums).

If you can get your data moved to another disk then I would consider this disk to be untrustworthy and therefore dead.

I would love to recover my data but the thing is the drive is overheating if i do anything, i tried running the windows check disk and it instantly ejected itself.

[r00tb33r]

57 minutes ago, FarhanAli said:

I would love to recover my data but the thing is the drive is overheating if i do anything, i tried running the windows check disk and it instantly ejected itself.

I'm familiar with that problem.  I used to cut cooling holes in drive enclosures using a hole saw.

 

If the drive overheats then take it out of the enclosure.

[FarhanAli]

31 minutes ago, r00tb33r said:

I'm familiar with that problem.  I used to cut cooling holes in drive enclosures using a hole saw.

 

If the drive overheats then take it out of the enclosure.

I would like to retain my warranty i have talked to the seagate customer care they provided a recovery software which i am trying out to see it my data is survives, tbh the worst thing is that i can see them they are right there but i cannot access them .

[r00tb33r]

11 hours ago, FarhanAli said:

I would like to retain my warranty i have talked to the seagate customer care they provided a recovery software which i am trying out to see it my data is survives, tbh the worst thing is that i can see them they are right there but i cannot access them .

Anecdotal story.  I once had to put an overclocked network router in a freezer so I could reconfigure it back to factory clocks.  And I've recovered data from at least a couple failing hard drives by chilling them in the freezer as well.

[FarhanAli]

15 hours ago, r00tb33r said:

Anecdotal story.  I once had to put an overclocked network router in a freezer so I could reconfigure it back to factory clocks.  And I've recovered data from at least a couple failing hard drives by chilling them in the freezer as well.

OMG!! that sounds dangerous, can anyone else confirm about this i have seriously lost hope and curious to do anything.

[r00tb33r]

You can pay a professional data recovery lab to recover your data.  Unless affiliated with Seagate they will likely void your warranty, but that's the least of your concerns, since the recovery service will be more expensive than the drive.  Besides, your data is more valuable than the drive, right?

 

Moral of the story: don't put your drives in your drawers. 

[FarhanAli]

UPDATE!

Tried the seagate software only a hand-full of files were found, contacted them and sent the drive for "INLAB" recovery which will take approximately 60 to 90 days, its almost free of charge, but when receiving the the recovered disk back i'll have to pay the import duty charges.

 

[r00tb33r]

Let us know how Seagate's data recovery service goes for you.

[FarhanAli]

9 hours ago, r00tb33r said:

Let us know how Seagate's data recovery service goes for you.

Suree will do !

Hoping for the best!

[FarhanAli]

Recovery Update!

So, after a not so long 2 weeks i have got the email that my data was successfully recovered, just waiting for the drive to show up.

 

.

(Note: 2 week include the shipping time)

[kokosnh]

Just to add one thing. The freezer/fridge option can kill it. It can also scratch the platter, when trying to run if cold after freezer/fridge.

It can be used in different type of HDD problems ( usually the bering problem ), not here. Here we had the platter problem, so it wouldn't do a thing, and could actually worsen the HDD state ( even scratching the platter, hindering the data recovery ). 

you never want to run your HDD when it's cold, for example when you go indoors, from the outside when it's winter. give it some time to warm up. 
the same with laptops with internal HDD. 

 

For the drive overheating, it’s probably plastic enclosure fault…

[tdkid]

21 hours ago, FarhanAli said:

Recovery Update!

So, after a not so long 2 weeks i have got the email that my data was successfully recovered, just waiting for the drive to show up.

 

.

(Note: 2 week include the shipping time)

i just saw this but

yes placing a HDD inside of a draw that you slide in an out 5-6 times a day can and will destroy the drive due to the vibrations. i would suggest finding another place for it to sit where its not going to move. i would also suggest switching from an HDD to an SSD as its not prone to damage by vibrations as much. 

[kokosnh]

30 minutes ago, tdkid said:

 i would also suggest switching from an HDD to an SSD as its not prone to damage by vibrations as much. 

Just to add to that, leaving SSD unpowered, to just sit on a shelf is also bad, and they just lose data over longer time ( and when connected only briefly, the controller may not get the chance to represje the old data before it’s gone ). Just to be aware of this. 

[FarhanAli]

Segate's customer service is broken now since they switched to chat only customer care

 

First of all on the tracking panel i got the update that the drive was delivered 5 days ago since then i am trying to contact them using the chat bot on their website but it gets stuck on connecting you with a live agent, i've waited for more than 30 mins regularly.

Today my drive was delivered but it is encrypted, last time i spoke to a guy he said that once the drive arrives do contact us we will provide you the the encryption key but now that i am trying to connect its still stuck at connecting you to a live agent.

 

Can somebody plzz help

what should i do next
 

[kokosnh]

Well you need that encryption key from them to get the data.