External Hard Drive Crashed

How geeky is the kid? A Pre-Install environment CD should be able to at least let him access and copy the files from the faulty drive, as long as the drive physically runs OK, is recognized by (even if not read/write accessible to) the machine, and simpy has what amounts to a data error. A Pre-install Environment CD essentially amounts to a stripped-down version of Windows which runs not from the machine's hard drive but directly from the CD itself, leaving the machine's files and folders untouched by the machine's operating system - very handy for data recovery or for heavy-duty yuckware cleaning.

Info on how to assemble a powerful, flexible Pre-install Environment CD may be found HERE. I use that one, BartPE, myself, modifying its add-ons to suit any of a number of setup, recovery, and analysis jobs. If a volume, file or folder exists on the subject machine, odds are BartPE will let you get at it, view it, manipulate it, and copy, move or delete it.

If the problem is mechanical, recovery still is possible, though pricey enough to be unlikely to be practical.

I don't know how geeky he is, but I have no idea what you are telling me. I'll copy your response and send it to him, though. He's pretty good at figuring this stuff out. Thanks for the help, Timber.

I had the same thing recently.
I downloaded GetDataBack from runtime.org and it worked perfectly.
It's 69 bucks mind but frankly that was a trivial price for the data that was on there.

It really is extremely easy to use and it does exactly what it says on the tin :
Gets your data back.

So does BartPE - and more - and its free.

He told me last night that a friend gave him a cd with some utility programs (don't know which ones.) His friend is an IT person. I haven't heard from him today. I'll let you know what happens. thanks again, timber. And thanks to you, Heliotrope.

crashing external hard drives
For what's it's worth, I bought a Maxtor 80gb ext hard drive.Within a couple of days of turning it on, it's light went out.I took it back to the store and they replaced it immediatley.The same thing happened to it as well.It's light went out a couple of days later. No one was sure what the problem was, but it was suggested that I should NOT have left the power turned on for too long. I was told that in future, only turn it on when I need to back stuff onto it, and then turn it off. There was NO instruction sheet with it, telling me what to do or what not to do. Later on it was discovered that maybe the POWER CORD was faulty, and instead of just replacing the cord, they HAD to replace the lot. In the end I paid a few more dollars and bought a Lacie brand ext hard drive. Fingers are crossed.

Interesting - I strongly suspect, as referenced, the actual fault lay not with the drive itself, but with its power interface; mosta my gear, 'puters and peripherals alike, is shut off only for inside-the-case maintenance. Stuff here runs 24/7, often for months at a time, though wherever possible provision is made for allowing an unused piece of gear to enter a minimal-power idle or standby state when not actually in use. Not all equipment supports this, but much does. A drive not actively in use, not displaying files or otherwise reading or writing data, more or less should be in a minimal power state, ready to spin up when called upon, but idle, doing nothing pending the call to duty.