Recovering data from external and crashed internal hard drives
If you use a western digital or Maxtor external hard drive, you want to be extremely careful not to bounce that drive around. External hard drives of this type are not particularly sturdy and are extremely prone to a cyclic redundancy error. For those unaware a cyclic redundancy error or failed CRC error results when one’s internal or external hard drive separates, physical damage resulting and the inability of the rotating platter inside the drive to spin. Simply put the hard drive freezes up. Usually this problem will only occur if an external hard drive is grossly mistreated. The majority of situations requiring one to recover data from external hard drive storage occur under the most common problem accidental file deletion. As with any external drive connected to our PC, data recovery of this kind is extremely simple.
All that is required to recover data from external hard drive storage is to download onto your computer a superior file recovery program. These are third party programs specifically designed to scan through large internal and external hard drives and locate on those drives any information in sectors that have been marked as deleted. The best versions of these programs come equipped with simple graphic user interfaces that allow even the most inexperienced computer operator to check a few boxes and click a couple of buttons leading to recovery of any deleted files on their external hard drive within minutes. These same programs can be used to recover files from crashed hard drive storage when installed to a second, working PC.
See also:
Windows Partition Recovery Software
Disk drive recovery software
Restore lost data
Recover corrupt NTFS partition
Recover files USB drive
Restore photos
Mac OS X Data Recovery