REPAIRING AND/OR RECOVERING DATA FROM EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES

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Lorin Parker
6 years ago
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1 REPAIRING AND/OR RECOVERING DATA FROM EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES 1

2 SUMMARY Like all hard drives, all external hard drives eventually fail. Using SATA data and power cables and/or USB hard drive adapters or enclosures, you can recover the data from or even repair the better-built models of external hard drives. 2

3 FOR CONNECTING A 2.5-IN. HD OR SSD TO A USB PORT: Since a USB port has enough wattage to power up a 2.5-in. hard drive or SSD, you can use a very cheap adapter that does not have a separate power supply: 3

9 FOR CONNECTING A 2.5-IN. OR 3.5-IN. HD OR A SATA SSD TO A USB PORT: You have to use a more-expensive adapter that has a separate power supply if you want to be able to use a SATA-to-USB adapter to connect both 2.5-in. AND 3.5- in. hard drives to a USB port: 9

10 FOR CONNECTING A 2.5-IN. OR 3.5-IN. HD OR A SATA SSD TO A USB PORT: (continued) This Sabrent model is the best seller on Amazon. It is also one of the cheapest models. However, the bulky one-piece connectors that have both SATA/IDE power and data connectors are easy to work loose with vibration or movement: 10

11 FOR CONNECTING A 2.5-IN. OR 3.5-IN. HD OR A SATA SSD TO A USB PORT: (continued) This Sabrent model is the only powered hard drive/ssd SATA to USB adapter that arrives with an extra cable so you can also power up a separate add-on cooling fan without having to buy a "Y-cable" for splitting an existing SATA or IDE power cable: 11

17 FOR CONNECTING A 2.5-IN. OR 3.5-IN. HD OR A SATA SSD TO A USB PORT: (continued) This Tripp Lite model is a bit more expensive but it is less likely to wiggle lose because it uses separate power and data SATA/IDE cables which can withstand more vibration and movement: 17

24 INSTALLING AN ADD-ON FAN: If your existing external hard drive or external hard drive enclosure has a broken fan or if want to add in a fan to make it run cooler, you can add-on an add-on fan, usually with some creative sawing, filing, and/or drilling on the existing hard drive enclosure: 24

28 ATTACHING AN INTERNAL HARD DRIVE OR AN SSD TO YOUR COMPUTER WITH A SATA DATA CABLE AND A SATA POWER CABLE To connect an internal hard drive or an SSD to your computer as cheaply as possible, you can use SATA data cables and SATA power cables instead of USB enclosures/adapters: 28

29 ATTACHING AN INTERNAL HARD DRIVE OR AN SSD TO YOUR COMPUTER WITH A SATA DATA CABLE AND A SATA POWER CABLE (continued) Be sure to power down your computer before you make these two connections. 29

30 ATTACHING AN INTERNAL HARD DRIVE OR AN SSD TO YOUR COMPUTER WITH A SATA DATA CABLE AND A SATA POWER CABLE (continued) Then you will probably will have to fiddle with the BIOS or UEFI of the computer in order to get the motherboard to recognize the drive. 30

35 ATTACHING AN INTERNAL HARD DRIVE OR AN SSD TO YOUR COMPUTER WITH A SATA DATA CABLE AND A SATA POWER CABLE (continued) For SATA hard drives and SSDs, the plugs at the end of power and data cables are "female" and the receptacle ports on the SATA hard drives and SSDs are "male". 35

36 IF THE INTERNAL HARD DRIVE OR SSD INSIDE AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE OR SSD FAILS, YOU CAN INSERT A NEW HARD DRIVE OR SSD This repair only works for external hard drives or SSDs that have an internal hard drive or SSD inside them: 36

39 TWO POSSIBLE HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS INSIDE AN EXTERNAL USB HARD DRIVE Configuration 1: USB-to-SATA controller chip set on a controller printed circuit board has a SATA data cable and a SATA power cable that connects to the SATA data receptacle and the SATA power cable of controller board of a regular internal hard drive 39

40 TWO POSSIBLE HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS INSIDE AN EXTERNAL USB HARD DRIVE (continued) Configuration 2: Single controller board has a USB-tohard drive chipset inside it. No SATA data cable, no SATA power receptacle, no SATA power cable, and no SATA power jack 40

41 TWO POSSIBLE HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS INSIDE AN EXTERNAL USB HARD DRIVE (continued) The cheaper Western Digital and Toshiba Canvio external USB hard drives use "Configuration 2" and you have two options when they break: Recovery software like "Recuva" and an expensive clean-room recovery data recovery service. 41

42 TWO POSSIBLE HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS INSIDE AN EXTERNAL USB HARD DRIVE (continued) If your failed external hard drive has "Configuration 1", remove the internal hard drive from it. Then attach it to a "Windows.." or Linux computer to recover data files using one of three methods: 42

43 TWO POSSIBLE HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS INSIDE AN EXTERNAL USB HARD DRIVE (continued) To find out if a failed external hard drive is "Configuration 1" or "Configuration 2", go to YouTube.com and search for take apart <manufacturer of hard drive> <generic model name of hard drive> <number of Terabytes> TB 43

44 TWO POSSIBLE HARDWARE CONFIGURATIONS INSIDE AN EXTERNAL USB HARD DRIVE (continued) For example, if you have a failed 2- Terabyte "Western Digital" "Passport", go to and search for "take apart Western Digital Passport 2TB" (without the quotes) 44

45 THREE WAYS TO ATTACH AN INTERNAL HARD DRIVE TO A "WINDOWS.." COMPUTER: Method 1: SATA data cable and SATA power cable Method 2: USB to SATA adapter Method 3: USB hard drive enclosure 45

46 FOR DETAILED ADVICE AND PHOTOS, SEE: cs/doc-6121data from or even repair the better-built models of external hard drives. 46

PARTS FOR REPAIRING EXTERNAL SATA HARD DRIVES, SSDs, AND ENCLOSURES

PARTS FOR REPAIRING EXTERNAL SATA HARD DRIVES, SSDs, AND ENCLOSURES 1 SUMMARY When an external hard drive or a hard drive enclosure fails, you can sometimes buy "third-party" parts to replace the part