Failing external hard drive

[massonkarolien]

Hello all,

I'm kinda freaking out at the moment. I have a WD elements 1tb external hard drive and it was working fine until a couple of days ago. I was trying to get all of my photo's an video's off it to get back up and upload to cloud, So I start to transfer the files but it wasn't going at normal speed, so i cancelled restarted computer and all i got after I put in password was a flickering desktop... So restart again, good so far, when i open explorer to go to map everything turns black after a few seconds. I restart again without my WD connected and everything works fine. This is where i start to freak out. There is about 350 GB of very important data on it i can't lose. (My previous back up drive crashed a while ago and haven't had the time to make another one also because of the Nas we were going to buy) So I try connecting it to my laptop with succes and a lot of patience. Now trying to transfer single maps at a time it takes about 3 to 5 hours for around 250 mb. So i was looking for another solution and a friend came to help with a data recovery program which is now running but again very very slow (about 10% now from 261 mb and already busy for 40min).
I've also tried a repair off the drive and that failed due to snapshot error, did offline scan and repair but didn't help.
Is there anyone that can tell me something else to try, that can help me get the needed data off faster without losing it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, Thank you

 

[DR_Luke]

It sounds like the drive is starting to fail. With professional data recovery tools, it could still be a relatively simple and cheap recovery. But, it could also be a weak/failing read/write head. So, if you value your files, it is best to seek the assistance of a pro before it gets worse. A few affordable and reputable labs around the world that I recommend are:

Recovery Force
Data Medics
Data Savers
PC Image
Data Busters
Mind Merge

If you insist on trying to recover the data on your own, understanding the risks involved, your best option to do next is to get a full sector-by-sector clone of the drive using an open source program like gnu ddrescue or hddsuperclone. Both programs are designed to log and avoid weak/damaged areas of your hard drive and gradually focus in on them through a multiple pass imaging process.

Good luck

 

[USAFRet]

that can help me get the needed data off faster without losing it?

"faster" is secondary to "success".