synus.meignaer

Commendable
Jun 10, 2019
6
0
1,510
I have a 1TB ADATA HD650 external hard drive, I've had it for over a year, and one day I after I got back from a meeting I turned on my computer I noticed that Windows wouldn't boot, it was stuck on the logo screen. Until I disconnected that drive from my PC it booted, and after that I plugged the drive back in, but it wouldn't show up on explorer, tried opening task manager and I saw that it was getting detected, but for some reason it shows that it has 0MB formatted, which for me seemed strange considering I hadn't done anything that could compromise my data in there. Diskpart shows the same under list disk. So I tried to recover my data using Wondershare Recoverit, and it also showed my drive, but when I started scanning it, the active time graph on task manager went to 100% but without any activity from the drive, a red LED was flashing on the drive, and it disconnected itself from the computer, and some time later Windows showed a notification about "USB device not recognised." And after that it wouldn't do anything, so I just unplugged it.

What seems strange is that the drive does not make any kind of unusual sounds, it spins up normally, I hear a single faint click, probably the heads moving to some position, but then it doesn't do anything.
Tried to check it with HD Tune: trying to do a Benchmark test just shows up "Read Error. Test Aborted", and with Error Scanning the drive does the same as in Wondershare Recoverit, where it just goes 100% active time, but no activity, disconnects itself, etc.

I think my data could be intact, based on the fact that it may be a problem with some logic board, but I don't know if the problem is on the actual hard drive board or the SATA to USB board from the [original] case. What I think though, that may have caused this problem is that most of the time I plugged this drive in an USB 3.0 hub, (it was one of those that didn't have a DC jack) and sometimes it would have power problems due to the kind of devices I had connected, such as an audio interface, a capture card, another external HDD, etc. So that may have damaged something in the hard drive, but again, I'm not sure if the problem is with the hard drive itself, or the case, so if I take out the hard drive and put it on another case I think I could recover my data.

But if you could let me know if something else could be done to this drive, it would be appreciated.
 
I turned on my computer I noticed that Windows wouldn't boot, it was stuck on the logo screen. Until I disconnected that drive from my PC it booted,

Do you mean this:

I turned on my computer. It would not boot with the external connected. It did boot when I disconnected the external.

Or this:

I turned on my computer. It booted until I disconnected the external. After I disconnected the external, it would not boot.
 

DSzymborski

Curmudgeon Pursuivant
Moderator
The only way to test is to open it up and see if the drive can actually be removed and put in another enclosure. In a lot of portable externals, that's not the case. If it's the drive and not a problem with the external drive's interface, you may need to purchase a replacement and restore your data from your backups.
 
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synus.meignaer

Commendable
Jun 10, 2019
6
0
1,510
The only way to test is to open it up and see if the drive can actually be removed and put in another enclosure. In a lot of portable externals, that's not the case.
I think it may be possible to do that because I had another similar ADATA external drive, but its USB connector broke so I had to cut-open the case and put the drive in another 2.5" case.

If it's the drive and not a problem with the external drive's interface, you may need to purchase a replacement and restore your data from your backups.
If that's the case there could be a problem, as this drive was used mainly as a backup drive for another computer I had, hence I don't have any backups of it (also because I ran out of free space in all of my internal drives).
 

DSzymborski

Curmudgeon Pursuivant
Moderator
I think it may be possible to do that because I had another similar ADATA external drive, but its USB connector broke so I had to cut-open the case and put the drive in another 2.5" case.

It depends on the model. You can only find out by looking rather than speculating.

If that's the case there could be a problem, as this drive was used mainly as a backup drive for another computer I had, hence I don't have any backups of it (also because I ran out of free space in all of my internal drives).

That's unfortunate; this is basic upkeep. And just like ignoring basic upkeep on your furnace or your car, remedying this can be extremely expensive. We're not there yet, though; see if you can shuck the first and don't worry about the next step unless it comes to it.[/QUOTE]
 
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synus.meignaer

Commendable
Jun 10, 2019
6
0
1,510
I just noticed something that could make this way harder than I thought:
"ADATA HD650 features 256-bit AES encryption protection."

So... I don't know if I should give up or... keep looking for a way to recover my data. I thought of contacting ADATA but, being the encryption a problem I doubt they could help.