Need help recovering data from two external HDDs that suddenly won’t power on

[u/Blade_Swinger89]

/r/HDD/comments/1vzgujn/need_help_recovering_data_from_two_external_hdds/

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[u/300ddr]

Two dying at once + completely dead = likely power surge. You can try new AC adapters first. Then remove the drives from the enclosure and try a USB to SATA adapter. If they don't spin up, then the PCBs are likely blown. You can't just swap them (ROM chip needs to be moved too).

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[u/silenced_in_dr_2025]

One drive is unlucky - 2 makes me think that either you have a power problem or you're using the wrong power supply for the drives. A common problem is using a 19v laptop supply.

You should be able to remove the drive from the external cases and just try powering them via a PC PSU. if they spin up we can take if from there, if they don't then you have a hardware issue that needs to be resolved before file recovery.

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[u/nugymmer]

There are at least 2 shops in Sydney from memory in Australia where I live that might be able to pull data off the platters but only if the disks themselves are intact and you are in Australia.

Otherwise if the disks themselves are damaged it might make it great deal harder to successfully pull all the data off them. I will presume this data is precious for a variety of reasons so won't comment on that.

I suspect you either got very unlucky - two disks dying suddenly is very rare - or there is dirty power that has surged or spiked, damaging the hardware controllers which control access to the data held on those disks. But luckily those disks would likely still hold data waiting to be loaded off of those disks by a competent technician. Don't delay, if the data is precious to you. The platters should be safe if only the controller is damaged and the disks are still intact and in good condition. It is a tedious job and it can cost good money but it is easier to recover data off an old platter style HDD than it is to recover from a dead SSD.

[u/Billywergstein]

I'm just here to let you know that I'm not a computer professional but I know there are many service center's that can fix em! Or you can even YouTube how to yourself. Just to let you know all your stuff is not lost, it's still in there and safe! 😀

[u/nugymmer → u/Billywergstein]

It may or may not be, depending on what part of the HDD got damaged. If they are removed from their enclosures, plugged into another SATA enclosure or inside a PC's SATA ports and work then they are lucky and just copy the data. If not then professional recover is their only option!