It depends very much if the drive was powered when it fell or not.
If it was off, the heads will have been parked over non-data areas. (landing zone). In that case there's a good chance of getting all the data back, though it might be costly. They pull the platters out and put them in a new unit.
If it was on, though you'll probably have damaged at least part of a platter which means anything on it may not be recoverable. Since the OS stores data all over every platter you'll more than likely lose some data.
Sent from my iPhone
On 6 Sep 2010, at 21:43, Glenn Gutierrez <yah@glenngutierrez.com> wrote:
> I concur, unfortunately.
>
> The light/LED feeds from the power supply inside the case, and not from the drive mechanism itself, so it's not an indication of the health of the drive. There is the slightest chance that it fell in just the right way to knock an internal connector loose. I doubt it, but personally, I'd open up the case to look anyway. Not much to lose now.
>
> G
>
>
> On 06 Sep 2010, at 1:33 PM, Danny Franks Jr wrote:
>
>> You probably damaged the HD inside and chances are, you won't be able to recover anything. Unless you want to pay for it.
>>
>> Danny Franks Jr - studfrog@me.com
>> www.studfrog.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sep 6, 2010, at 8:58 AM, gail_journ wrote:
>>
>>> My external HD fell on the floor and now it won't spin but there's still a light.
>>>
>>> My macbook says it doesn't recognize the drive.
>>>
>>> What should I do?
>
>
>
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