External HDD possibly lost its data?!?!

[jkangas]

I store a lot of crucial information on a WD 640gb external HDD.

My friend today dropped this hdd about 2 feet onto a shelf. It didn't seem like a big fall. However I get home today and I plug it into my computer and it can't read any data on my hdd and says that it needs to be formatted. I plug it into my ps3 and it can see the folders that were on my hdd but it takes forever to open them and it cannot play the files.

Is there any way to recover the files on this hdd?

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

What happens if you plug the drive into the motherboard's controller, versus the external case? If you can get it to read the info, get it off of the drive now. It sounds like failure is imminent, if it hasn't failed already.

 

[jkangas]

it is an external hdd that connects through usb. I cannot connect it to the motherboard

 

[rsh123]

hard drive recovery

The hard drive is obviously still spinning. I would try to read it with another operating system like knoppix. You can find links and instructions here http://www.drive-rescue.com/Dos&Donts.html

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

The external drive can be removed from the case it's in and attached to the motherboard. It's just a plain ol' SATA drive inside of a case, with a USB adapter plugged into it. There's several videos on YouTube that show the disassembly process, just take your pick.