External Drive Data Recovery
Generally an external drive is just a normal hard drive enclosed inside a USB or Firewire enclosure. Data recovery from these follows the same lines as data recovery from a normal hard drive, more information about which can be found under Hard Drive Recovery.
Something to note about external drives though is that they are at a much higher risk of data loss than internal drives due to a number of reasons.
Poor Air Flow
Firstly they are generally built with relatively poor ventilation. Think of how much space is inside your computer case and the air flow created with fans, and then think of your External Drive. They normally have no fans and can get very hot. Far hotter than is recommended. Do what you can to relieve this by using your external drive in an open area.
Impact Damage
The nature of an external drive is that it is portable, by being portable it may be put into bags and knocked about or basically not treated in the same way your desktop computer's hard drive is. They also stand a much higher chance of being knocked over or falling of desks due to the wires they have.
Power
By being externally powered they tend to be turned on and off much more than conventional desktop hard drives. The most wearing time on a hard drive is when it is turned on, a bit like the engine of a car. They are also more likely to suffer from loose wires causing power issues.
If you have any issues with an external hard drive, such as it not being recognised by your computer, missing files, or funny noises, then turn it off and contact us immediately on 0845 475 4512