External HDD dead/dying - potential revival/recovery/optimization?

Hey!

I've had this external HDD for close to a year, and to be fair I haven't been as careful with it as I should have been. The HDD has "died" on me two times earlier, this being my third time struggling with it. 99% of the time it won't be recognized or even start up, but a couple of minutes ago it suddenly decided to start up and show me the stored files. I tried to copy some important folders over to my desktop, but it did not respond at all.

Disk manager refused to boot up every single time I tried, but device manager did recognize the drive.
After a couple tries the HDD disconnected.

Even when the disk was connected none of my HDD recovery software recognized the disk except for Recuva, but the disk sadly disconnected when Recuva was starting up (could be the reason for it disconnecting I suppose).

If I manage to get the HDD to be recognized again, is there any way for me to get it into working condition, or should I simply try to format it? How would I get the important folders copied if the HDD doesn't respond at all (other than browsing the files etc.)?

I am a bit stumped as to what I should do as it could be a lot of different things. The symptoms of the drive varies, though I suspect the electronic part of the HDD is faulty.

Any help/thoughts on the matter would be very much appreciated!

Edit; The HDD often appears with a yellow warning triangle then disappears again. Only visible in device manager.

Its a question is it the drive cable or interface you need to try it in a pc with a different cable

Remove the HDD from the USB enclosure and connect it directly to a SATA port. Not likely to work any better, but worth a try.

I am currently scanning the disk via Windows, as it prompts me to when it gets recognized properly.
Currently trying to copy 4,28 MB worth of files but Windows doesn't seem to figure out how long it is going to take. AKA not copying/transferring files?

I was using my laptop when the HDD stopped working, and it still does not work. I will try to get another HDD cable ASAP as I don't have a second one atm.

Edit; I'll try to remove the enclosure later! Trying to see what I can do with it now that it is recognized, but it does act slowly as if the HDD part is broken (?).

There are probably a bunch of bad sectors on the disk, especially if the drive has been dropped.

Does it seem likely that I will be able to recover what is important, and then format it to get it back into working condition?

Its likely dead but goto makers website they normally have test software specific to their drives and that will tell you

1) We have no idea what "I haven't been as careful with it as I should have been." actually means.

If you have dropped it or something like that something could been damaged like the mechanical parts of the drive itself or the interface board electronics, maybe both.
Neither are easily repairable, essentially it is a dead drive.

2) You should always have spare USB leads available to make sure of that connection. These premade USB leads with moulded on plugs are not exactly reliable.

3) Most USB drives these days do not have SATA connections within the drive box the electronics go directly from the drive to USB 3.0 or USB-C.
So taking apart the drive is pointless as you can't connect the drive to SATA.

If you are lucky and it is an intermittent connection in the USB lead then just replace the lead.

If that intermittent connection is within the drive electronics it maybe repairable by a specialist but that will be expensive.

Helmut said:

3) Most USB drives these days do not have SATA connections within the drive box the electronics go directly from the drive to USB 3.0 or USB-C.
So taking apart the drive is pointless as you can't connect the drive to SATA.

But the user will never know if there is a standard SATA drive in the enclosure unless they take 5 minutes to pop open the enclosure to look. I hardly would classify spending 5 minutes to pop open the enclosure as pointless.

Hi Hauksort,

Please provide complete details of your external HDD - Manufacturer, model no/name, Capacity

Have you tried it on another working PC? If not, do it and report what happens.