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Not enough disk space? Need a backup solution? External drives provide you with extra storage in your office or on the go. Learn how to repair them here.

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External SATA 500GB HD was dropped, now beeps instead of whirrs

First off, I don't know much about PC's as I'm usually a Mac person, but this is for a friend. An external hard drive was dropped from a height of less than 2ft, but onto hard flooring. It will power on, but seems stuck. It beeps (and possibly clicks) about every two seconds. It sounds like whatever it is that spins inside the drive is stuck. I've tried using a universal drive adapter, so I know it's not anything to do with the power or the external case.

I've removed it from it's case, and would like to see inside the drive, but the cover seems stuck, and I don't want to break it. Does anyone know how to tear down a SATA drive? or have any suggestions?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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You're not going to fix it by disassembling the drive. The click's and beeps indicate the drive it damaged; there is a good chance (98%) that you have lost all of your data.

Note: By removing the cover from this drive the any remaining warranty will be void and all data will be considered lost.

Now if you still want to take it apart just to look inside, there will be one or two screws that are under the manufacturer’s label that will have to be removed. Pressing firmly, run you finger across the top of the drive until you can feel the depression where the screw head is. Using you screw driver puncture the label and remove the screw. Then you can pry the top cover off.

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Vermillion is right it's probably lost. To attempt recovery put it an an open external enclosure and have another one hooked up to recover the data to. Gently tap the hard drive with a small hammer and see if you can get it to spin up one last time. Of course it can be sent to a data recovery company if you really have to get the data off. There are no user serviceable parts inside the drive. Opening it will just negate any chance of recovery.

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Thanks, doesn't look like it's going to work, but thanks for trying.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m5cil6Ke...

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