my dropped external hard drive stop working the light is coming on but not hearing anything like it is moving,and i have a lot

[DJ STAR]

it was on a table and my daughter accidentally dropped the external on the tile floor,since that its not working the indicator light is coming on,but not hearing it or seeing it appearing up on my computer and i have a lot of important files on it,how do i recover the files or solve the problem with the external

 

[DSzymborski]

Attach it to the PC (or another PC) and try to recover your files using something like Recuva or Easeus and see if they're seeing the drive and what, if anything, you can salvage with a software solution.

Beyond that, hard drives are non-serviceable, so if there's physical damage and the data is that important, you'll need to contact a data recovery firm. Keep in mind that the cost of the really good ones can easily go into four figures and there's still no guarantee that what you want will be recovered.

Sadly, the only dependable way to recover important files is to not lose them in the first place. Anything worth keeping is worth backing up and it always breaks my heart how often we get questions like these! My hope is your lesson turns out to be a very easy one rather than a harder one.

 

[BadAsAl]

You need to buy another USB hard drive enclosure, then open your external drive and remove the hard drive itself. It should be a standard SATA drive. Put it in the new enclosure and attach to your computer. If it still doesn't spin up then you will need to explore other avenues. But this is a quick and cheap way to tell if it is just the enclosure itself or the drive.

If you tell me the model number of the external drive I can recommend an enclosure for you.