I have an old HD I hadn’t opened in about 8 years. I put it in a computer hoping it would work and it worked perfectly for a few minutes but now it keeps disappearing if I restart the computer it shows up but unable to copy old photos/files and it disappears again.
This has some important files really need it to work.
Firstly and most importantly, if the files on the HDD really are important, stop using the disk! Disconnect if from the computer and put it somewhere safe.
Are the files important enough to pay a data recovery service to retrieve them? In any event, if you want to recover the files yourself, you should do your research before even touching the HDD.
As for how the HDD is behaving… working one moment, then disappearing the next. I’ve had disks do that in the past. It could be a faulty connection. Either the SATA data cable needs replacing, or if you’re connecting it externally, perhaps the cable or port you’re using is flaky. Or… it could be the HDD’s last signs of life.
Once again, if you really care about the data. Don’t mess with the HDD until you know what you should be doing.
Well I managed to copy the personal writing files which were the MOST important. I think I have other copies of the photos. A lot of other stuff there I would love to retrieve. But I doubt I would be willing to pay for it I suspect that would be expensive.
I did disconnect it.
Click for some last resort suggestions
If you’ve ever heard of the freezer trick, it might be worth a try. If you’re feeling a little more adventurous afterwards, there’s a particular screw associated with the pressure applied to the read head, which can cause it to overshoot if it’s too loose, or not move if it’s too tight. Adjusting this very extremely slightly(or maybe just placing a bunch of pressure around it while it’s going, ymmv) may also allow the drive to work for longer.
Reason is that metals expand when they warm, and the constant movement of the read head of the drive will slowly eat away at the point of contact that screw keeps tight, effectively loosening it over time.
Source: Experience. Had a drive fail in a state where it would never spin up or mount. Added pressure/adjustment of the screw/the freezer trick got it to mount, but fair warning, I never quite got it to actually read files.
The other thing you can do is buy an external harddrive caddy, connected via USB.
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Carefully clean the connectors with alcohol and qtip on both the drive and cable.
And connect tightly when dry.
Make sure your cable is good. New is better.
Back up the data as soon as you can.
Its possible for drives to fail but in the long run they are pretty reliable.
The weakest link in the chain is the data connection, followed by power, followed by the controller card circuitry
Spinning rust Disk wise with age you have magnetic field deterioration. Hence the importance of frequent defragging the drive.
( by rewriting the data the fields are strengthened)
Mechanical failure: the most prevalent are the disc/ head crashes.
The heads float above the disk due to the bernoulli effect ( corriolis air current from the spinning disk lifts the head off of the disc)
Sudden jarring can cause momentary disruption of the effect and the head can contact scour a path on the disk damaging the oxide coating.
Bearing failures are very very rare but can happen, these are noticable by a consistant whining noise while running.
(To give you an idea how rare, ive only seen 1 bearing failure in 48 years of computer repair)
Even other magnetic media can suffer from long term disuse.
Usb sticks! They contain a battery
They need to be accessed regularly to charge it.
Same with ssd drives.
Optical media is better for long term storage but the caveat here is that it must be top quality media and it must be kept in a dry temperature controlled environment.
Its obvious that low quality media suffers from degradation of one form or another, So the question is,
Just how important is the data compared to the budget?
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