How I Recovered the Data on my Hard Drive

I wasn’t really planning on sharing this, but have had quite a few people ask for details so I decided to do a little “tutorial” of sorts on how I recovered the data on my “dead” hard drive.

I never planned to share details because I don’t really know what I’m doing and am definitely not a techy! So, if you are, this data recovery method will probably make you cringe and I suggest you go ahead and look away. 🙂 BUT, if you have a “dead” drive and are willing to risk $2o to hopefully retrieve your documents, this may be a solution for you.

First off, all credit goes to Rebecca who read of my hard drive drama and sent me an e-mail. She had a similar situation and had been able to retrieve her data with the use of an ADAPTER. Her husband (the techy) said I wouldn’t know if the adapter would work on my hard drive unless I tried. But since I stupidly had no backup, and the CHEAPEST data recovery quote I could find was in the hundreds, I decided $19.99 was worth the risk.

This is the adapter I purchased:

The first thing I did was open up the hard case of the drive. It was a bit tricky and I didn’t want to break the case so I ended up finding a youtube video that gave me some tips on opening the case without breaking it. How to open the case will probably vary by brand.

Next I carefully pulled off the green piece (see how technical this tutorial is?!).

Then I plugged the adapter cords into the hard drive. The adapter didn’t come with instructions, so it did take me a minute to figure out where to plug everything, but wasn’t too bad.

Then I took a deep (terrified) breath and plugged the USB cable into my laptop.

And CRIED when my hard drive popped up on the computer screen, recognized the same as it had before the “malfunction.” Now that I’m able to get to my files, I can transfer them to another drive.

If you are wondering if this method will work for you, Rebecca’s husband said you won’t know unless you try, however, (maybe this will help you decide to try?) if the boot sector (where hard drive “starts” and tells the computer what files to get to work) died, then this adapter should work. If it was the the bearings in the hard drive that went though, and the disk inside doesn’t spin, you won’t be able to get to your files.

I hope this helps someone! Let me know if you give it a try! 🙂

(Just to let you know, this post does contain an affiliate link, and so I do make a little bit if you purchase directly from here. I’m very grateful if you do as it helps me keep this site running, but understand if you aren’t comfortable.)