recover damaged harddrive. repair failed

To all,

this is my first post, so if im posting in the wrong area please let me know.

Firstly, I am running 10.8.3 on a macbook pro
I have a 1TB WD harddrive that isn't being read by the computer properly, I have followed steps to verify and repair the disk as it shows up in disk utility.

How can i retrieve my data. i have thousands of important documents?
has anyone had any luck with a free data recovery program?

cheers
sean

Is this an external drive?

mrplow said:

Is this an external drive?

Click to expand...

Yes, im sorry i should have stated that. I believe it is called a mybook. it is from western digital

Firstly don't use the disk unless you absolutely have to. The more action you take with it the less likely recovery will be successful.

I'd consider getting Data Rescue 3 or Disk Warrior. Both are competent tools, although file recovery is not an exact science. All depends on how the disk is damaged.

The disk may be fine, it may be the enclosure it's in that's failed. I'd try the disk in a different enclosure although I appreciate that's not easy with the MyBook and would void the warranty.

thanks for the reply.

The disk is currently unusable and has already passed its warranty period. I will try those applications.

cheers

Then, before you try them it may be worth getting hold of a new enclosure (maybe borrow one from a friend?) or a external USB to sata adapter?

Was the hard drive physically damaged in any way? Hit, dropped, banged etc.?

If so, you're likely going to need a professional data recovery service and you're looking at around $1200-2500 to get that data back.

If not, I'd suggest Data Rescue 3 since the free trial will tell you if you CAN save the contents before you actually buy the program!

I presume next time you'll have a better strategy for backing up. It's not a matter of IF, it's a matter of WHEN a hard drive will fail.

I had a similar problem with a WD.external drive, a 3.5" disk in a proprietary enclosure. It suddenly stopped being recognized, on any Mac or Win machine I tried. Replacing the enclosure didn't help. I finally established that though the spinning disk was fine, the firmware bolted to the disk had failed and is not replaceable. I cannibalised another similar drive and got all the data off. I have subsequently learned this is a common fault with these types of WD enclosure. I used to have significant trouble with their USB- powered series and no trouble with their externally-powered drives. Now that situation is completely reversed, and I've had two externally powered ones fail, but the four USB-powered 2tb drives I have (the My Passport series) work perfectly.

I'll also add that I don't trust any HD past a year's use, and at 18 months' use I replace them. I've had too many fail at incredible awkward times. That applies to internal laptop drives and external ones.

That's not the 'norm' for HD failures. Though, being mechanical, failure is inevitable at some point. 12-18 months replacement for all drives is a little extreme for the everyday user.

What I would suggest was a better choice, to mitigate failure, is buying bare hard drives. Look to those designed to run 24x7 in servers and NAS boxes. For externals buy a good quality separate enclosure rather than a pre-constructed device. This way you have control over the quality and type of disk installed.
On top of that you want to keep backups of irreplaceable data. In fact that should be top of the list, prevention is better than cure.

The most important thing is to realize the difference between an external hard drive used for storage and one used for backup. I hear many people talking of "backup" when they don't have that data stored anywhere else. That always ends in tears, sooner or later.