Recover Files from a Dead External Drive

Posted: June 20, 2017

External drives are a great way to store files and take them with you wherever you go. However, like all technology, these drives can be at risk to stop working unexpectedly, leading you to believe you've lost everything on the drive forever. By implementing these steps, recovering external drive files could be possible.

Jon L. Jacobi, writer for PC World, shares how to recover files from a dead external drive.

External drive died? Your data may still be easy to recover

Tawffic Abdul Wahab 's external hard drive stopped showing up on his system. Not a great thing to have happen. However, unlike with an internal hard drive, he's not necessarily looking at an expensive recovery bill. Note: The following is for external drives that are out of warranty and/or without a recovery contract. Use those if they apply, though warranties generally don't include recovery. If you need the data, you might want to try these tricks anyway. Falling bridges How can I recover a dead drive, you say? Well, external drives utilize what's called a bridge board to handle communications between the USB/FireWire/Thunderbolt controller and the native SATA that the drive understands. Sometimes, it's this bridge board that fails, while the drive inside remains perfectly usable. Read the entire article External Drive Died? Your Data May Still be Easy to Recover on PC World. Save