external hard drive help

[v6man]

i need help if anyone can point me in the right direction or if they can fix my external hard drive.

while on duty one of my buddies messed with the ext. hard drive and fried it. my question is, is there any way the info,pics and anything else on it still be recovered??

i really hope so i have a lot of pics of iraq and other things i would like to have.

it is a stlab pocket hard drive usb 2.0. if anyone can fix it i will gladly pay for it.

thanks

[Dojo2000]

Is it an exteranl hdd with USB connection, or a USB flash drive?

[Infernal]

How, exactly, did your buddy fry it. If its a solid state device and the data cannot be accessed, you're pretty much screwed, unfortunately.

If it's actually a hard drive, meaning it has a platter and an access arm and a read/write head, etc, there could be any number of things wrong with it. There are data recovery companies who can most likely get a good portion of the data off a hard drive that has suffered physical damage.

[v6man]

Originally posted by Infernal:
How, exactly, did your buddy fry it. If its a solid state device and the data cannot be accessed, you're pretty much screwed, unfortunately.

If it's actually a hard drive, meaning it has a platter and an access arm and a read/write head, etc, there could be any number of things wrong with it. There are data recovery companies who can most likely get a good portion of the data off a hard drive that has suffered physical damage.

the cable is touchy, if yo move it around it will disconnect itself then reinstall. really weird.

well he picked it up and started tugging on the cable like a little kid and it stopped working.
i tryed to get it to work on several computers but nothing, it is reconized as a device and that is all. cannot be accessed. most these companies expensive??

[Dan M]

Can you take it apart? You might be able to access the drive more directly. Is it just a 2.5" hard drive with an enclosure perhaps?

[mwh27]

Originally posted by Dan M:
Can you take it apart? You might be able to access the drive more directly. Is it just a 2.5" hard drive with an enclosure perhaps?

x2, ive done it many times.

[v6man]

i took it apart out of sheer curousity as to what it looks like. but as far as i saw there was nothing wrong.
while it was apart i hooked it to my compter and the arm tried to move but acted like it was frozen in place. thing is it didnt do that before i took it apart. http://www.sunsway.com.hk/. USB2.0-HDD-ENCL USB 2.0 to IDE Hard Disk Enclosure

that is the link to the exact ext. hard drive i have.

dan how would i access it more directly while it is apart??
the only thing i saw while it was out
of the casing is a board that is connected to all the pins on the drive itself. that the cable goes into..

[Dojo2000]

WTF, you took your hdd apart? It's gone now.

[v6man]

Originally posted by Dojo2000:
WTF, you took your hdd apart? It's gone now.

how could it be gone if the casing was off it and nothing touched??

[lambo101]

Originally posted by v6man:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Dojo2000:
WTF, you took your hdd apart? It's gone now.

how could it be gone if the casing was off it and nothing touched?? </font>[/QUOTE]A+ Cert here. um ya. your data is gone buddy. when you took that hd apart, and that oxygen came in contact with those electrical charges(the data) on the platters(those discs inside the hd), your data went bye bye. not even the fbi or military can get it back now. did you even try replacing the cable first? damn, i wish more people would learn more about computers.

[v6man]

tried the cable, the board that connects to the hdd itself everything even the drivers and none of that worked.

[Tyler]

those hard drives are sealed shut for a reason.. ANY fragment of dust or even oxygen alone will ruin a perfectly good hard drive.. Curiosity kills the cat. once again..

YOu can pay about 1000 bucks a megabyte at data recovery specialty shops.. there are some out there that can recover data off of melted hard drives.