You'd have to put the drive into some case to see if the host device was the failure, but a drop while running is just plain bad. No other way to put it.
Bob
I tripped over the USB cord and the HD smashed into the ground. It was running (ie Powered on). When you turn the power on it makes a siren noise (you dont even need to connect it to a computer). It is a maxtor harddrive (i dont think the case matters at all) i have determined already that it is for sure the hard drive that is the problem. I can't read this hard drive by USB. Is it fixable? Is the data recoverable?
I have also read somewhere of breaking the head. Can someone tell me what that is too.

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