2.5-inch · bus-powered · USB 3 and USB-C
A portable external drive is a 2.5-inch laptop hard disk in a plastic or metal shell, powered by the USB lead alone. It is the commonest external drive there is, and it lives the hardest life: in a bag, on a desk edge, plugged into a laptop that gets picked up while it is still spinning. When it fails it clicks, it beeps, it stops showing up, or it asks to be formatted. Most of those are mechanical or firmware faults on a drive whose platters still hold everything. One portable drive is £300 + VAT after the free look, the figure written down before any chargeable work, 3–4 days at the bench, and on most jobs no data means no bill.
Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
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| What is going on | The usual reason for it | Where that leaves you |
|---|---|---|
| Clicking, and not detected | Heads failed or stuck; the drive cannot read its own service area | Head work on the bench; the platters usually hold everything |
| Beeping | The motor cannot turn because the heads are stuck to the platter | Heads freed and replaced; do not power it again |
| Spins, appears in Disk Management as unallocated or RAW | Damaged partition or file system | Imaged and rebuilt; do not initialise |
| You need to format the disk before you can use it | Windows cannot read the file system | Say no; the files are still there |
| USB device not recognized | The bridge or the socket, or a drive that is not starting | Board work, or the drive itself |
| Very slow, then disconnects | Weak heads or a run of bad sectors | Imaged head by head, weak areas last |
A case number goes on it the day the parcel is opened, and an engineer settles what has actually failed before anything else happens. A drive that clicks or beeps is not powered again; one that spins is read on our own imaging equipment, never in a computer that will retry and time out and retry. Back to you come two things together: a straight note of what is liftable and what is not, plus one figure, fixed and written down. Accept it, or decline and owe us nothing.
A portable drive's case comes apart on the bench and the USB board is checked first: the socket, the regulator, the bridge. On native-USB drives the board is the drive's own and stays with it. On WD's encrypted portables the board is the key to everything, and it is the first thing preserved.
Stuck or failed heads are replaced with a matched set from a donor, seized spindles freed, and firmware faults corrected in the drive's service area from the terminal. The drive is not repaired to be used again; it is made to read once, in a single careful pass, and that pass is planned before it begins.
Nothing is worked on live. The whole drive is imaged once, head by head and weak areas last, with reads timed to what the platters can stand, and the file system is put back together on the image. Encrypted volumes are unlocked there too, with the original board's key or the password you supply, and never on the original.
What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not — and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. Recovered data travels home on fresh media bought in for your job, with the postage at our end. Your case is not closed until you have opened the files on a machine of your own.
Before you try one more thing: a portable drive that clicked once and then went quiet has not fixed itself. It has parked, and it will click again. Every power-on is a fresh chance for a failed head to score the platter it is meant to read.
Dropped in a camera bag, and beeping every time it was plugged in. Inside was a 2TB Rosewood drive with the heads stuck fast to the platter. The heads were freed and replaced with a matched set on the clean bench, the firmware unlocked from the terminal, and the drive imaged head by head over two nights. Eighteen months of client shoots came back.
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine caseUsually not. Clicking means the heads have failed or cannot find the drive's service area; the platters underneath are usually intact. The heads are replaced on the bench and the drive read once. What ruins a clicking drive is being powered again and again.
On many older portables yes, but on WD My Passport, WD Elements, Toshiba Canvio and Seagate slim drives the USB socket is on the drive's own board and there is no SATA port. On WD My Passport the board also holds the encryption key. Send it whole.
No. That message means Windows cannot read the file system, not that the drive is empty. Say no, unplug it, and send the form.
3–4 days at the bench for one portable drive after the free look. Head work is at the longer end.
£300 + VAT for one drive after the free look, fixed in writing before any chargeable work.
Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the drive unplugged.