How to recover data from a spoilt/broken External hard disc driver.

[Jackson twalipo]

Ma exeternal hard disc driver jst fell from i queit high platform of like a meter and a haif and stoped working immediatly. Was jst wonderin if there any way i can recover my data.

[sicarie]

There are a few ways you could go about trying this.

1) you can freeze the hdd - yep, literally put it in a freezer overnight
I've always found this to not work, but have had several people tell me it worked for them. The idea is that the still-attached pieces expand enough, and the freezing holds the broken piece enough, that the hdd works for long enough to extract data.

2) create your own 'clean room' and take apart that hdd, put the platters in another hdd of the same architecture and size
This is very difficult as it has to be done very carefully and static and mostly particle-free, but is possible.

3) send it to a company that specializes in data recovery
This is a pricey option, but might be worth it depending on what data is on there.