My external hard disk is dead  

thomaseg1 said:

sounds like your in good shape then.
A local computer shop can tell you how to dispose of the HD.
I remember drilling a hole through the platter to insure no data could be gain from it.
Back before I retired.

"Drilling" the holes with a.308 or 30-06 is even more fun!

Take the magnet out of the HD, it's incredibly powerful for its size. And make a wind chime out of the disks and parts.

[QUOTE=jumanji;1837843]Do not rely on [COLOR=#333333]USB IDE/SATA converter. If you had taken the HDD out of its casing , it is best to connect it internally on a desktop and have a check.



I agree! I had one a few months ago that was making clicking noises and not reading from external. I took it out and put it IN the desktop and had to repair it but working fine now. I had to recover my software but it was acting like the drive was dead or dying , and making clicking noises and only showing as logical drive but it was the onboard USB controller that was flaky!

Corona said:

Take the magnet out of the HD, it's incredibly powerful for its size. And make a wind chime out of the disks and parts.

News to me. I didn't know that there's a magnet inside a hard disk.:)

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[QUOTE=Tutman;1838055]

jumanji said:

Do not rely on [COLOR=#333333]USB IDE/SATA converter. If you had taken the HDD out of its casing , it is best to connect it internally on a desktop and have a check.



I agree! I had one a few months ago that was making clicking noises and not reading from external. I took it out and put it IN the desktop and had to repair it but working fine now. I had to recover my software but it was acting like the drive was dead or dying , and making clicking noises and only showing as logical drive but it was the onboard USB controller that was flaky!

I did connect it to a Windows tablet (using the USB IDE/SATA converter), but the result was the same. The disk was dead as a Dodo.

It was interesting to see that there is also a debris filter. I always thought that the drives were so tightly sealed that nothing could get inside them.

This happened to me recently but I did knock the drive whilst it was running - fortunately I backup to two drives.