Dead external hard drive: how to recover your data

External hard drives are a popular way to add storage capacity to a computer. After all, a single external drive can hold several terabytes of valuable data.

If your external drive is still not recognized, the fault may be physical and every new attempt counts. Before trying again, see how external hard drive recovery works, starting with a free diagnosis.

That makes them a great option for storing photos, videos and other files you do not want to keep on your computer’s main drive.

An external drive also makes it easy to share data with friends and colleagues.

Unfortunately, even if you handle them with a lot of care, external hard drives are not immune to failure, and you may end up with a dead drive.

Many different problems can lead to this. Some of them can be solved, and the lost data can often be recovered.

In this article, you will learn the signs that your external hard drive is dying, what you can try to get it working again and how to recover the data stored on it.

01How do I know if my external hard drive is dying?

The most common signs that an external drive is about to fail are overheating, strange noises (such as clicking or buzzing) and corrupted data or files.

These symptoms can quickly turn into major problems, so act immediately to protect your files and avoid losing data.

Strange noises

If you hear strange noises coming from your external drive, something is seriously wrong.

A repetitive sound known as the “click of death” is usually caused by the read/write heads failing to read the disk, returning to their starting position and trying again and again.

Grinding or squealing noises indicate that mechanical parts, such as the bearings or the spindle motor, are failing. If you hear any of these noises, turn the drive off and do not keep trying to use it.

Computer freezes

If your system starts to slow down or freeze often when you connect the drive, it could be an early warning that the external drive is failing.

This usually happens when the computer accesses the drive, for example when opening programs, searching for files or saving documents, but it can also show up as a general slowdown.

Disk errors and data loss

Other telltale signs that your external drive is dying are frequent disk errors and repeated cases of data loss.

Also, if corrupted files are becoming a routine problem, this could be a sign that the drive is about to fail.

The computer stops recognizing the drive

The computer stops recognizing the drive

If your computer has trouble recognizing the drive when you plug it in, this can also mean that the external drive is about to fail.

02Step 1: How to get a dead external drive working again

Solving the problem of a dead external drive may involve two stages: getting the drive recognized again and, if necessary, recovering the data. Important: these steps only help with logical or connection problems. If the drive clicks, grinds, does not spin or has been dropped, skip them, as repeated attempts can cause permanent damage, and contact a data recovery lab.

In the first stage, you can try any of the following solutions to get the external drive recognized again.

Check whether the external drive appears in Disk Management

The first step is to check whether Windows can see the drive in Disk Management and try to make it accessible again. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open “Control Panel”, click “Administrative Tools” (“Windows Tools” in Windows 11) and then “Computer Management”;
2. Under “Storage”, select “Disk Management”. You can also open it directly by right-clicking the Start button.

If you need your data right away, skip to the next stage to recover the data from your external drive. Do not initialize or format the drive if Windows asks you to, as this can erase your data.

But if the drive appears there with no drive letter and you just want to make it show up again, follow these steps to change its drive letter and path:

1. Find your external drive, right-click its partition and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths…”;
2. Click “Add” or “Change” and assign a drive letter that is not being used by another drive;
3. Click “OK”. The drive should now appear in File Explorer; if it does not, restart your computer.

Make the external drive appear by uninstalling its driver

You can also try uninstalling the drive’s driver so that Windows reinstalls it. To do this:

1. Click “Start”, type devmgmt.msc and press “Enter”;
2. In “Device Manager”, expand “Disk drives” and “Universal Serial Bus controllers” and look for devices marked with a yellow warning sign or listed as “Unknown device”;
3. If your external drive is listed with an error, right-click it (or open “Properties” and go to the “Driver” tab) and choose “Uninstall device”;
4. Unplug the drive, plug it back in and check whether it appears in “This PC”;
5. If it does not appear, restart your computer;
6. If it appears but has no drive letter, open “Disk Management”, right-click the partition, select “Change Drive Letter and Paths…”, click “Change”, choose a new letter and click “OK”. The external drive should then be detected and readable.

Reinstall the USB controllers and adjust power management

Another option for getting your external drive working again is to reinstall the USB controllers and stop Windows from turning them off to save power.

To do this, follow these steps:

1. Type devmgmt.msc in the “Start” menu and press “Enter”;
2. In “Device Manager”, expand “Universal Serial Bus controllers”. To reinstall them, right-click each controller and choose “Uninstall device”; Windows will reinstall them when you restart;
3. Then right-click “USB Root Hub”, choose “Properties” and open the “Power Management” tab. Uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”.

Repeat this for every USB Root Hub in the list and restart your computer. If the problem was in the USB connection, your computer should be able to read the external drive again.

03Step 2: Recover data and files from a dead external drive

If the drive is recognized again but you still cannot open or read the files and data stored on it, you have two options:

1. Use data recovery software: this requires technical knowledge and experience with this kind of process. Success is not certain, and if used incorrectly it can make the situation worse. It is only suitable when the drive has no physical fault;
2. Use a professional recovery service: the safer option, especially when the drive has a physical fault.

If you decide to try the first option, choose one of these data recovery programs and follow the steps below. Install it on your computer’s internal drive, never on the external drive you want to recover:

Step 1 – Select the external drive

Once you have installed the recovery software, open it and select the external drive you want to recover data from.

Step 2 – Start the scan

The software will scan the entire external drive for lost data. As it runs, the files it finds will start appearing on the screen. If the scan becomes extremely slow or the drive starts making noises, stop it.

Step 3 – Recover the data

When the scan is finished, review and select the data you want to recover. Then choose where to save the recovered files: always a different drive, never the external drive you are recovering from.

04Conclusion

A dead external drive is one that has stopped working, whether because of a logical problem or a physical fault.

You can tell that your external hard drive is about to fail when it makes strange noises, the computer freezes often, disk errors and data loss keep happening and/or the computer stops recognizing the drive.

When this happens, there are a few things you can try to get the drive working again, such as checking whether it appears in Disk Management and assigning it a drive letter.

You can also uninstall the drive’s driver so that it reappears and/or reinstall the USB controllers.

If, after trying these solutions, the external drive is recognized but you still cannot access your data, you will need to recover your files and documents.

You can use data recovery software for this, but it requires technical expertise, carries risks and can make the situation worse.

That is why the safest way to recover your data is to turn to a specialized recovery service, like the one we offer at Bot!

When you entrust your external drive to our team, it will be handled by highly trained professionals who will work to recover your data as quickly as possible, with all the care your drive needs.

And you do not even have to leave home to send us your drive: we collect your external drive free of charge from your address (islands not included).

In addition, our standard diagnosis is free and ready within 48 hours, after which we send you a quote for recovering your data.

Trust a specialized team with more than two decades of experience and more than 200,000 cases: start your data recovery with us today!