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

Working with large quantities 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 article : Recover permanently deleted files. First lets start with some general data recovery tricks, valid for all type of data devices, PC’s, Mac’s, phones.

Don’t forget to back up your files. As life coaches like to say, there’s something positive about every negative thing that happens to us. When your USB flash drive suddenly disconnects from your computer or your operating system starts to insist on checking your SD card, it may be a blessing in disguise. These early warning signs give you a chance to properly back up your files, if you haven’t done so already. We can probably all agree they are much better alternative to a sudden, irreparable failure.

You should be familiar with how your computer typically sounds, thus keep an eye (and an ear) out for any unusual noises that may point to a damaged internal mechanism. For example, atypical clicking could indicate an issue with the read-write arm, while persistent grinding could foreshadow potential problems with the spindle motor or bearings. The sounds may be subtle, so don’t hesitate to lean in and take a good listen if hear anything unusual. Check out data recovery company Data Cent’s heart-wrenching collection of failing hard drive noises if you need a better idea of what giving up the ghost sounds like from a strictly audio standpoint.

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.

Firmware: Your drive runs its own mini operating system in order to deal with all of the data and operations required to access it. Most of this firmware is stored on the platters. A small portion is stored on the PCB, which is required when the drive starts up. Firmware can go wrong, leading to inaccessibility of your data. Unfortunately hard drive firmware is not similar to your mobile phone or tablet—you cannot just update or reflash it. Each drive has its own unique modules and parameters and is highly complex in nature. Now that we understand the basic components of a hard drive let’s look at some common failures and symptoms you might experience, determine which component could be causing the problem, and see if we can tackle some of these problems DIY style.

Older laptops that were constructed with traditional hard drives were fairly simple to pop open and fix. You could unscrew a few screws holding the case together, and then plug into the drive via a universal SATA port to retrieve the data. Opening the actual drive itself is not without risk, or advisable, as dust could and will enter the drive, causing contamination and potentially additional damage during the process. For example, older drives would be subject to something called stiction, and sometimes became ‘stuck’, whereby the head and actuator were locked or stuck and the motor failed to spin, causing the hard drive platters to spin improperly. One trick that had some reported success involved placing a hard drive in the freezer, which would cause the metal to contract and become unstuck, at least long enough to offload the data.

Data recovery service is not a bad idea when you want to recover lost data. But this kind of solution is very expensive and time-consuming. Moreover, other people will see your recovered files and information. The best solution for recovering lost files from WD Elements portable hard drive is file recovery software. Powerful file recovery software can let you easily and safely recover lost WD Elements data on your own. With file recovery software, you can conveniently recover lost files from WD Elements portable hard drive by yourself. See extra info on Recover lost files from WD Elements portable hard drive.