Ask me how to recover lost files from WD Elements portable hard drive

Working with large amounts of information? You know the panic moment when you realize that you need something that you deleted a long time ago. This is the subject of this post : How to recover deleted files which were deleted long time ago? First lets start with some general data recovery tips, valid for all type of data devices, PC’s, Mac’s, phones.

These days, it’s perfectly viable to do just about anything in the browser. You can write documents and edit Excel spreadsheets in Google Docs and the online version of Microsoft Office, Office 365, use Dropbox or OneDrive to organize your files, edit photos in Pixlr, and much more. Because the work you do using these online apps is stored in the cloud and backed by industry-grade data backup solutions, there’s virtually zero chance of you ever losing your progress. If you can build your entire workflow around online apps, you don’t even need to bring a laptop with you when traveling. Any public computer will allow to continue right from where you left off.

To make sure it’s the hard drive and not one of the many other things that can go wrong when starting up a computer, if possible, remove the hard drive and plug it into another computer. Lots of PCs make this easy, but for any device, the process will be easier with a tool kit and universal drive adapter. Once you’ve removed the drive, plug it into a working computer. If you can see that drive’s files on the working computer, pull out anything essential and make copies. Yes, this is a big ask, especially for anyone who hasn’t ripped apart a computer before. But this will at least determine if the drive is the part that failed.

Is the drive making clicking noises on connecting or accessing? As mentioned earlier, this is a job for the data recovery service center or professionals. Is the drive detected by the computer and spinning but hangs on accessing? Such a scenario is an indication of a large amount of bad sectors. This usually happens to hard drive with years of continued usage. Either use free BIOS accessing utilities that can skip bad sectors to read the data or send the drive to a data recovery service center if you’re not sure, but want the data recovered.

Having covered the ‘deleted data’ section of data recovery is all good and well, but what happens if your drive is not even being detected by your machine? Or your machine can see the drive, but just hangs when you try to access it? What about if the drive is completely dead and won’t even spin up? Let’s briefly cover the main components of a drive, see which components can fail, and what symptoms each failure might exhibit. PCB: This is the (often green) circuit board attached to the bottom of your drive. It houses the main controller (the equivalent of your computer’s CPU) along with many other electronic controllers. This is the interface that turns your 0s and 1s from the platter into usable data that your computer can understand.

Recovery services are also the only viable option if the machine was exposed to water, or if it was dropped and it’s likely some part of the drive was broken. If you hear loud clicking noises, or the machine was immersed in liquid, then the best route is to turn it off and keep it off. Never use a hairdryer or other hot air on the machine as this can push the liquid into further components and create an environment of high humidity. Simply find a recovery service and let the experts handle it. There are hundreds of software utility tools that can be downloaded off the internet for free, and offer promises of fast and easy data retrieval. Unfortunately, many of these are filled with malware, and using them will expose the data to theft or worse. Avoid using free utility services that do not have an established reputation as effective and virus-free tools.

Why Do Your Data Recovery can find all deleted files which were deleted long time ago? It offers advanced recovery mode to deeply scan your hard drive or device. If you can’t recover all deleted files which were deleted long time ago, just try advanced recovery mode to find all your lost files. Read more info at How to recover deleted files which were deleted long time ago?.