Harddrive crashed- Runs, but doesn't show any data.

[sleepyface]

I dropped my computer and the harddrive died the next day. It had also been lagging a lot for a couple months before. After it crashed, when it was in the computer BIOS didn't detect anything. I now have it hooked up as an external and when I plug it in it spins, but no drive shows up. The computer does say that it has installed a USB drive.

I have tried a couple data recovery programs, but they don't see the drive as an option. When I look into disk mgmt the drive is in the bottom section, but not the list above. It is unallocated and referred to as unknown.

Is it possible to get some of the data off the drive? If yes, how? Do I need to format the drive somehow? - I didn't need to with my functioning drive before.

*Now the drive isn't showing up at all in disk mgmt.

 

[rcxtra]

Do NOT format. Sounds like the drive suffered some physical damage as a result of the drop. If you REALLY need that data, you should probably turn to a data recovery service. You can try some of the free tools available on the internet, but they have a VERY low success rate. Whatever you do, don't use anything that writes to the drive (i.e. formatting) or your data will be lost for good.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the TH community, sleepyface!

Unfortunately, the drop just like @rcxtra mentioned has most probably caused some physical damage on the drive. The mechanical hard drive is a highly sensitive piece of hardware, that's why we recommended constant backups on several other locations (storage devices). This is the surest way to avoid potential data loss. I'd not shake your HDD any more and perform any data recovery attempts by yourself as this might do more harm to your data, than good.
If you have important files, you should most definitely contact a professional data recovery company for assistance. They are your best on getting your files back.

Best of luck! Hope we were helpful!
SuperSoph_WD