My external hard drive is dead. How, where, and at what cost can I recover my data?

Hi, there is a small software that works very well for recovering photos and videos, and maybe files? If you're interested in the software, I can find it. See you later, Dan.

Hello, first you need to check if it is really dead and not recognized as drive C: etc. Otherwise, you can use software like Smart Data Recovery, which is a data recovery tool for the Windows operating system that supports FAT and NTFS file systems. The software easily restores data from hard drives, digital cameras, and any storage media - flash drives, USB drives, memory sticks, PC cards, multimedia cards, digital cards, and floppy disks. Smart Data Recovery can restore any deleted file, including MS Office files, photos, mp3 files, and zip files even if the partition table is lost! I have been using this software for a long time and I am satisfied with it. If you would like more information, no problem.

I will basically respond to you the same as the others, knowing that to repair it, it must go to a specialized lab in a sterile place (no dust); I'm sorry for you.

Hello, we had the same issue as you: the external hard drive wouldn't even start. We found a company, Recovea, in Roanne (42) because we wanted to recover some data. You send them your drive and they take care of recovering the data to transfer it to another drive. The cost of the operation is €780, but some things are priceless. Hope this helps you.

I had the same misadventure with an internal hard drive where I had stored photos. I bought an identical drive on eBay for about 25 euros (it came from Germany) and swapped the electronic board, and my drive worked again like before. I had a one in two chance that it wasn't the head guidance electronics inside the drive. But even in that case, which I did, you can upgrade the platters. However, the little dust that got inside the drive makes it unreliable, and you need to hurry to transfer your files.

If it's only the circuit that's faulty, it's possible to open the external case, remove the hard drive, and connect it as a slave to the PC. If the drive is fine, it should work.

with a little luck: dismantle the external case, take out the disk inside and connect it directly to a free slot inside a desktop PC. It’s not very complicated to do, but the disk shouldn't be damaged (meaning it will only work if the controller, USB, or power supply are faulty).