Hard Drive Duplicator Question

Posts

• evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member

  March 2013 #2

  

  There's definitely a chance it can be saved. How much can be saved depends on exactly what is wrong with the drive. If it's a Windows problem and not a hardware problem it can definitely be saved. If it's hardware related, it's hard to say.
  
  I do have a couple questions. Is the computer on which you're attempting to access the drive the one on which Windows was installed? If it is, is it plugged into exactly the same port as it was at the time of installation? If the answer to either of those questions is "no," that's your problem. Windows marries itself to the computer, even the exact port on which it was installed and it won't boot from another computer/port. Putting it back where it was when Windows was installed will fix this, if that's the problem. If that's not possible, you can put it into a computer where there's already a drive with a Windows installation and boot from the existing installation. The trouble drive will boot as a mass storage drive and you'll be able to copy files from it using that system and won't need the duplicator.
  
  If that's not the case and it is a hardware issue, by all means try the duplicator and may The Force be with you.
• Coolhand287 Mountain LairPosts: 1,296Member

  April 2013 #3

  

  BolianAdmiral wrote: »

  Hello, all...
  
  As some of you here who are my FB or chat friends already know, a while ago, I had not one, but TWO Western Digital 2TB external HD's die on me... the second one being a new unit that WD digital had sent me as a replacement for the first. :rolleyes:
  
  Anyway... the issue with the second drive is that my Windows 7 PC won't access the drive... when I plug in the drive, the green loading progress bar in the window will progress extremely slowly, until it almost reaches the end of the little window bar, and then it just freezes. One of my friends said that this likely means the drive has bad sectors on it.
  
  So... before I throw away the WD drive in the trash, or use it for target practice to vent my rage and fury against WD, I would like to save whatever I have on that drive, because there is a LOT of stuff that just cannot be replaced. So I am considering buying a HD duplicator, like the one below:
  
  
  
  http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/638197-REG/Aluratek_AHDDUB100_External_SATA_Hard_Drive.html
  
  I would like to know if this has ANY chance in hell of saving/copying what is on the drive over to a folder on my PC, so that I can copy those files to my PC, or if it is truly a lost cause? I wanted to ask first, because I'd rather not pony up the money for this thing if it won't work. Thanks for any insights.

  
  I don't see what that device does that would be any different installing the drive into your pc or a different external enclosure... Its basically just the same drive interface that you have on a pc, just with minimal control systems to allow you to copy drives without needing a whole pc, awesome if you're stealing the secret files from work or something... have you tried mounting the drive in your computer?
  
  I fixed a WD external accidentally by smearing conductive paste over the logic board and wiping it off, some remained in thru-holes and might have fixed a bad contact. I don't recommend you try this btw, but you may be able to fix the drive with a new logic board as often these go bad before the mechanical parts, because of poor manufacturing or making it 'compliant' to restrictions on solder types etc. if you can buy the exact same drive, you should be able to take the logic board from one and try it on the other.
  
  your problem may well be entirely different however. If you can't figure out whats wrong with it then there are professional recover options, depends how much the data is worth to you.