External drive broke, attempted to make it internal...

[misssararules2]

Hello, I'm pretty new to navigating pcs, but I have a very large problem at the moment...
I had a 1TB Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive which stopped working on me a few days ago. I've got lots of very important files on it that I very stupidly never backed up. The drive would not show up despite hopping between USB ports all over my pc, and when checked with disk management, showed up as Disk 2, needs to be initialized (no storage data shown).
After failed attempts to use recovery softwares, I learned that you could convert an external drive to an internal one, so I set out to do just that.

Once hooked up, whenever I would try and boot it would freeze on the BIOS load screen. I tried swapping around SATA cables and ports, but as long as the Seagate was hooked up it would not boot, nor let me get to any BIOS options.

Long story short, I guess I need to know if there is a workaround, and whether my files are lost forever. ANY insight, questions, or suggestions are welcome, and thanks for reading!

 

[asoroka]

If they are important files then go to a professional recovery lab. It will cost you, but they will recover anything that can be recovered. They can take your hdd apart and move the platters into a new hdd shell. (Do not try this at hoe, it has to be done in a sterile dust proof lab).

If your PC will not boot with the hdd attached, that indicates a major problem that probably can't be resolved at home.

 

[mdd1963]

Some drives are encrypted via hardware in their enclosure, and are incapable of being ever read when removed from enclosure... (Not saying that applies here, but, it is a concern with several models of WD external drives, for instance....)

 

[seagate_surfer]

Hello misssararules2, if your HDD is not been detected in either the enclosure or in the PC then from what you describe, the drive has failed. We do offer a recovery service if you are interested. Also having a good back up plan in place is essential.

The conventional wisdom by tech experts on backups is known as the 3-2-1 method.

Basically you want:

3 copies of any data you don't want to lose
2 different mediums it's stored on (so 2 different drives in your computer, for example)
1 copy kept offsite, to prevent against disaster.

Best of luck.