Help! Western Digital External Hard drive Issues

[Vacmy]

Today, my friend happened to run thru my room and ripped my 320Gb Western Digital External Hard drive off my desk and to the floor... I plugged it back in, and checked the files on it and all my itunes music, my movies, and all my other information on it couldnt be found. I lost all my Homework files for this semester for my online courses.. Im hoping anyone here can help me. I went to my computer and the mybook was not showing up. When I plug it in now, it sounds like the disc inside is scraping against the side. I am realllly hoping that this isnt a huge problem (even tho i suspect it is) and am hoping I dont have to run out and get a new one. Wondering if anyone else has ever had any similar problems and knows any solutions.. or am i just screwed? Any info at all will be helpful. Thanks in advance.

[gt_killa]

You can try and look for Recovery programs that can recover the lost files, but I don't know how much of it you can recovered. It happened to me a long time ago, only able to recover a small portion of the HDD and the rest are gone =(. Sorry to hear.

[Mizango]

Ouch that sucks It sounds like the drop dislocated the platter inside of you HDD. If any of the platters are warped, loose or distorted I would not encourage you to keep it plugged it. That grinding sound could also be one of the platters being dug into by one of the heads as opposed to grinding the sides.

I mean, there is nothing really magically you can do besides salvage what you can. Even if that means getting a program that can salvage some (if any) of your lost files. Most of these files aren't free mind you, unless you do some digging. This happened to me also once when I was moving and I took mine apart and found out it was the the spindle and the mounted motor that was broken.

Needless to say I was SOL and had to just trash it completely. Good luck with it though. Kick your roommate in the nuts as small compensation. Salvage whatever you can, no matter how mundane. You can google data recovery software and see if you can find any that you like. Sorry, I wish I could be more help to you.

[Ivaden]

If you're looking for a new hard drive after this, especially due to the circumstances, I'd recommend http://www.amazon.com/80GB-USB-5400-...530829&sr=8-16.

I have one for school (video production major) and while they don't hold as much as your current HD, they are incredibly durable. I've dropped mine a few times and have had no problem, but that doesn't mean you could just spike it on the ground or anything and it'd be fine lol.

Anyway, sucks to hear it, I've lost data on another external HD (not due to damage though) and wanted to kick my own ass several times for it.

[Melena]

vacmy, if you have aim message me. I have a program that can recover files I can send ya, but it only works if windows can at the very least recognize the drive.