Recovers lost or deleted Office documents, emails, presentations & multimedia files.
Recovers deleted files, photos, videos etc. on Mac.
Recover photos, videos, & audio files from all cameras and storage on Windows.
Summary:
This blog post shares the specific methods (ways) to help Mac users recover their data from a dropped hard drive.
Accidentally dropping a hard drive can cause device malfunction and result in loss of the data stored on it. A 'physically' dropped external hard drive would often need professional help for data recovery and device repair.
But, there may be cases wherein the dropped hard drive still gets detected on the Disk Utility (macOS).
In these cases, using a specialized data recovery software for Mac can help you recover the lost data from the dropped hard drive.
Common Scenarios for External Hard Drive Dropped (Mac Users Attention)
Technical forums have discussion threads wherein iMac & MacBook users describe the various ways in which they’d dropped their external hard drives. Some of these include:
All these scenarios depict that your external hard drive is damaged and not functioning properly. You can try out the following methods to fix the issue.
Fix 1: Try Connecting the External Hard Drive to Another Mac
Try connecting the hard drive to another Mac. If it gets detected there, you can easily take a backup of your data from the hard drive and then replace the damaged drive.
Fix 2: Use a USB – SATA / IDE adaptor
Note: Try this method only if you have the prerequisite experience and technical know how.
Fix 3: Use a Commercial Data Recovery Software
Note: Use this method if you’re able to mount the dropped hard drive on the Disk Utility
If you are lucky and your hard drive does mount on the Disk Utility, then use a commercial Mac data recovery software such as Stellar Data Recovery Professional (Mac) to recover all your lost data. The DIY software is equipped with an interactive GUI and recovers data in 3 simple steps.
Here’s how you can recover your data using this product:
Step 1. Download & install the software. Launch the software
Step 2. Select the type of data to recover or customize the scan accordingly. Click Next.
Step 3. Choose the damaged Mac drive from the list of available storage devices. Click Scan.
Step 4. The software begins scanning your chosen drive.
Step 5. When the scanning completes, the recoverable data will be displayed in the left-hand panel. Double-click a file to launch Preview and select the desired files for recovery.
Step 6. Click the Recover option and provide a destination to save the recoverable files.
Fix 4: Move the read/write head of the external hard drive to their original position
Caution: This method is meant only for data recovery Professionals and not home users.
Fix 5: Avail Data Recovery Services
If you’re unable to detect the hard drive even after trying out all the above methods, it means the hard drive is physically crashed. You need to immediately reach out to a professional data recovery service provider who has the technical expertise and infrastructure to recover the lost data. When choosing a data recovery service, it’s crucial to consider track record, data care capabilities, physical infrastructure, and data privacy as the key qualifying parameters. For instance, a Class 100 clean room is an essential need for secure data recovery in case of physical cases of data loss. Likewise, the emphasis on maintaining data privacy is critically important.
Conclusion
The blog outlined a few methods to recover data that’s lost when an external hard drive is dropped on a hard surface such as floor. The physical impact of hard surface not just affects the life of the storage device but also integrity of the files stored on it.
The various methods shared in this blog post can help you deal with these hard drive issues, after it has fallen down, and recover the lost data. These methods include — connecting the hard drive to another Mac, using a USB – SATA / IDE adaptor, trying out a Mac data recovery software, and opening up the hard drive casing to reset the head assembly position.
In case none of these methods works, it means that your hard drive is physically crashed. Immediately reach out to a professional Data recovery service provider to recovery the lost data from such crashed hard drives.
Vishal is a data recovery expert @Stellar. He addresses data loss scenarios on a Mac. He intends to help people solve their macOS problems. Besides, Vishal prefers to read about astronomy and autobiography, and his favorite is Steve Jobs - The man who thought different written by Karen Bluementhal.
Your post was very helpful. I have lost hope on my Seagate external hard drive. Thank you and God bless you!!!
Thanks for your kind words! We will surely try to help our patrons & readers to recover their lost/deleted data.
Appreciate your kind words, Ryan!
My friend has Macbook pro, which was dropped. It’s booting up but seems like his hard drive is gone. If there is any hard drive test built-in MacBook pro I am helping my friend to fix it? He mentioned he made a time capsule backup in an external hard drive. If in any case, we need to replace the hard drive is there any way to retrieve the backup from external hard he created. I am trying to retrieve any information from the current hard drive, but he is worrying more about if we can make it live again with a new hard drive. Please
Hi Mike,
Try connecting the hard drive to another Mac. If it gets detected there, you can easily take a backup of your data from the hard drive and then replace the damaged drive. If it doesn’t make any difference so you can use Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac and scan the drive if it appears so you can take the backup of your data. Otherwise, you can contact data recovery services via mail or call. support[at]stellarinfo.com ; +1-877-778-6087. Thanks