Jab, I have a Facebook friend who has for many years backed up his photos, etc from his computer to an external hard drive that crashed ~ is there any way to salvage anything from that hard drive?

Sooz

Backup means you have a copy on the external and the originals on your PC.
Both are gone?
I've got a few times some files off of a crashed drive with some free software, but it's even for me a pain in the ass.
Professional recovery services charge both arms, both legs and your first-born.
Is the drive really gone? How does friend know?
Does it spin up? Any noise like clicking etc?

Can't answer, but I've given him a link to your questions ~

Sooz

Just added JoeVincent, my Facebook friend, as a member here so he can answer your questions directly, Jab ~ confession: I told him you're like a hungry dog with a meaty bone with tough problems ~

Sooz

Hi Jabra and Sooz...
I'm the 'culprit' in question, as it were.
My current status is...
Recently relocated. No crash to my external HD; at least none that I was aware of. The external HD worked fine when last plugged in at my old place. A month later, after settling in at the new location, it doesn't work. No clicking, no grinding, no spinning. Just the blue light indicating the machine is 'on'. My PC doesn't recognize that there is any hardware hooked up.
Brought it to my local, trusty, computer tech shop. They looked at it for a week and tried some of the technical fixes.
Then, I got the call....nothing salvageable at this point. My tech suggested that he does have data recovery contacts, but feels that the expense may not warrant what may be salvageable...that he's seen all too many cases where any data recovered is entirely unuseable. He also indicated that if he, or they, fully open up the drive that it would be all do or die at that point...that I would be on the hook for the expense and still end up with nothing.
I do have things of value on that drive. But I'm currently torn between the idea of expense vs need and haven't fully made my decision yet.
My tech still has the hard drive, in the event that he makes less expensive or risky 'data recovery' contacts and/or if something brainstorms upon him as an action to take. However, I can get it at any time.
Basically everything I've saved since I've been on the net is on that drive....and I absolutely hate to think that I've lost it. But I'm trying to distance myself from it now, emotionally, so that no matter what decision I make.....too seek data recovery and risk the expense, or to walk way....is one that I can live with no matter the repercussions.

Now that y'all have my entire life story. Hiya

I thought long and hard how to reply...

First, I don't have a "trusty computer repair shop" for good reasons.
Second, what's your operating system and what is the exact brand and model of your external drive?

Third, I'm the last one to scold people for not keeping original and copies of data separate. I've lost drives before. One with all my important stuff of several years and believe me I know how that feels.

Fourth, is the drive still in the shop?
Let's go from there.

Hi Jabra,
Believe me, no scolding necessary. It's a hard lesson to learn but, once it's learned, it sinks in really well.
It's a Western Digital. Though, I couldn't tell you the model number at this point; it IS still at the shop.
My operating system has always been Windows.
I'm guessing, from your general tone, that you probably think I should get the unit out of the shop and back into my own hands?

Get it back and hope they didn't screw it up.
Next, model number of drive. Windows version? Tried a different USB cable?
There would be so many checks, depending on windows version, before even thinking about expensive recovery.

Whew!
Good news beckons....for me anyway. I had called the tech shop and talked to the guy awhile on Monday, after our discussions here, and he convinced me to give him a little longer with it as he was looking into particular software to recover data and wanted to do a few more diagnostics. I gave him the few days with the attention of picking it up Friday and either going further into the data recovery route on my own, or with an experienced professional.
Got the call today....all data recovered, moved to a new hard drive. The whole shebang, including the new hard drive will be $160 out of pocket.
Totally worth it to me.
Despite the fact that I wasn't able to use the technical knowledge offered here directly, I do appreciate all the help. This is certainly a lesson learned.
Cloudstorage here I come....and some DVDs too. Not going to take this chance again.

I don't, Chaos. I was actually dreading it cause you never know if you're lucky or not from far away.

Cloud, yes Joe, but also get a few USB sticks, they are relative cheap, and double/triple your files.

Cloud, yes Joe, but also get a few USB sticks, they are relative cheap, and double/triple your files.

And that's not all...you can launder them, too. Wife has used both top- and front-load washers and dryers on my usb drives, warm wash/cold rinse, dryer set on "parch" or "crisp", judging by my underwear. No loss of data. USB drives are the handiest thing ever, and cheap.

Gramps, you should publish your field test results on Cnet.

grampatom... Sounds like they're LG models. Do they come with TV screens on them?