external hard drive - Ext. USB HDD crashed - managed to recover files, but family videos seem corrupted. Anybody know how to fix them?

07
2014-07
  • user325124

    Last night I had everybody's worst nightmare. My external 2TB drive crashed, with all my family videos and photos on it. Right now you're all facepalming, but yes, I didn't have another backup. Not a mistake I will repeat again!

    I started with Recuva, which was useless and allowed me to recover 1 file. I then switched to iCare Data Recovery and that did a much better job. It allowed me to see all the files! So I "recovered" the photos and videos folder. I was overjoyed until I actually tried to play the videos...none of them work. The photos however, seemed to display their thumbnails and work after a while, although they didn't immediately.

    I have tried WMP, Windows Media Player Classic, Winamp...nothing opens the vids. The error shows as "Cannot render file". I simply must recover these videos as they are the only ones we have of our children. The videos are in various formats (.mov, .3gp, .mts).

    Does anyone know how I can fix them? I am using Win 8.1.

    Thanks!

    • Answers
  • Walt Houser

    I am a tightwad so I would try to use that drive again. If so, I would run SpinRite which is available at GRC.com for $89 dollars. Once SpinRite has identified the bad sectors and relocated the data, the drive's SMART system should be able to keep the drive operational for quite a while. If money is a consideration, it could serve as a local backup or storage if you use other backup methods. If you don't want to take the risk, donate it or give it away (with full disclosure of course!) It could chug along for years - or not.

    Written by Security Now's Steve Gibson, SpinRite can be used on any operating system and any file system. This means it can run on drives formatted with Windows XP's/Vista's/Windows 7's NTFS and all other older FAT formats (in addition to all Linux, Novell, and all other file systems.)

    Follow the instructions download the ISO and create a live CD (or other bootable media), including its own bootable FreeDOS operating system. There is a step-by-step video at https://www.grc.com/sr/whatitdoes.htm

    I use SpinRite for drive maintenance as well as to pre-qualify hard drives before first use. Drives on non-PC platforms, such as Apple Macintosh or TiVo, may be temporarily relocated to a PC motherboard for data recovery, maintenance and repair by SpinRite. SpinRite provides complete interaction with IDE-interface PATA (parallel ATA) and SATA (Serial ATA) drives, and it can also be used with any other type of drive — SCSI, USB, 1394/Firewire — that can be made visible to DOS through the addition of controller BIOS or add-on DOS drivers.

    SpinRite is a must have" tools for the computer pro or serious hobbyist. Since EaseUS worked well for you, I'll look into that tool as well.

    After you are done, do your backup. :-)


    • Related Question

    western digital - I broke the USB port on my external HDD. How do I fix this?
  • TheJK

    I have a WD 1.5 TB External HD. I carelessly left the device plugged in, stepped off my bed, foot landed on the cord stuck in the USB port and now the USB port is broken. It's loose inside the external casing now. Would I be able to fix this myself? If I opened the casing, would it somehow damage the hard drive? Should it be a simple fix?

    Any help would be appreciated. Besides posting here I'm also searching Google and the Western Digital forums & site and haven't found an answer just yet.


    • Related Answers
  • Majenko

    Whether you can fix it yourself depends entirely on exactly what has happened, and you won't know that until you have opened the box.

    You shouldn't damage the hard drive if you open the box - you'll just find a bog standard internal hard drive in there.

    In a worst case scenario the circuit board will have snapped, and it will be beyond repair.

    Best case? You have ripped the socket off the board and a new one could possibly be soldered back in.

    My tip: Open the box, take some pictures, and post them on http://electronics.stackexchange.com/

  • Flummoxed

    Opening the case won't damage the external drive. The simplest solution may be to buy an empty external drive case and take the disk out of the broken case and put it in the new one. It's easy. Just a matter of undoing a few screws and plugging the cable. No messy soldering is required. You could pick up a usb powered external case for about twenty bucks or so.

  • Bleech Daly

    I had the same problem.. I took a butter knife to my WD terabyte, pryed open the sides of both...and slid the insides out. Once there, I took a screw driver and took out the two screws holding the motherboard thingy. I then slid the main part out the case holding it, there are rubber "stoppers" in each corner that u'll have to take out while sliding. I looked and saw the the USB area does not have a port to attach the USB back on to, but requires an adhesive at some point. So, in the morning I will dab a small thing of "glue" to it, I will let it sit for a few. I then will re-attach and re-screw everything back to normal, and when I plug the reassembled terabyte back together, I hope that it works... Good luck.