Unplugged my harddrive while transferring files.

[MilanAnigma]

Okay so I had a minor catastrophe. I was working off of my 1tb WD external passport when it fell off my desk and unplugged. I've had issues with this hard drive and have always found it to be finnicky with my macbook pro. Sometimes it won't mount or it won't eject and I have to go to disk utility and repair it. I know it's not good practice but I've always just unplugged it without ejecting because of how unresponsive and slow it is to mount and eject. But after I dropped it it won't mount and all and disk utility can't repair it. I've tried downloading disk repair software and nothing. The best information I could get out of the disk repair software is that it's unreadable to my mac and possibly has been formatted to a windows/pc partition something. I don't have much information but I've looked up how much it would cost to repair and have been quoted $140 for a 6-10 hours job. I mean it's just not worth that much to me and I feel like these businesses are gouging desperate people who will pay anything to restore their hard drive. I want to know how much damage could possibly have been done and what it would take to fix.

 

[kanewolf]

Dropping a spinning disk can cause the read heads to collide with the platter. Causing a gouge in the platter and the heads to be damaged. It is also possible that you cracked the circuit board. You might have "only" damaged the interface card in the external enclosure. It is probably BAD...

Do you hear the disk spin up when you power it on? Do you hear any clicking noises? Any other noises?

 

[USAFRet]

...when it fell off my desk and...

I want to know how much damage could possibly have been done and what it would take to fix.

How much? Possible total destruction.
To fix? Retrieve your data from your backup, and toss the drive out.

 

[MilanAnigma]

The drive still seems to be running normally, no noise. It hums and spins. I don't think I dropped it hard enough to damage it physically. Maybe I messed something up by unplugging the drive while files were transferring? what sort of damage can that to do the data? Disk warrior tells me the file system is unsupported because it is a windows/pc file system. The drive format is fdisk partition scheme, but none of that sounds right.. is it possible that by unplugging the cable during use I corrupted the file system or something? Maybe the data is still there but I just can't access it and it won't mount to my mac because it is a windows file system? Is there anyway to copy the contents into another drive? For some reason I really don't think it is a hardware issue.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, MilanAnigma!

Unfortunately, it does seem like you've damaged the file system and usually that's what happens when you unplug the HDD while transferring files to it. I do hope that you are right and there's no hardware issue (after the drop) but I'd still recommend you to test the HDD's health and S.M.A.R.T. status by running the Quick and the Extended tests from the Data LifeGuard Diagnostic utility. Here's a link to the WD Software: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=ksD3Ec

Keep me posted with the results.
SuperSoph_WD