You’ve dropped your external hard drive, and you’re worried that it might not work anymore. Now what? If the drive contains absolutely essential data, the best practice is to leave it powered off. Get it to a data recovery company...

Hard disk drive failure is ultimately unavoidable. Every hard drive uses mechanical parts, and even with modern innovations like helium-filled enclosures, every mechanical component will eventually fail as these mechanical parts wear out. However, proper operating conditions can extend the...