Irked at Staples

So, my laptop is over 10 years old. Not wanting anything to happen to my works in progress, I bought from Staples an external save drive. They neglected to tell me that it can't be used for travel as very fragile. Whoops, now the spring went bust and my work, that is my most up to date work (and hopefully not all the copies) on that external drive can't be accessed. So, went back to Staples today to get sturdy external drive. Wouldn't you know, that $200, rounded, purchase can't be used because the "universal" plug isn't so universal and the clerk can't find an adaptor. So, tomorrow I'll try best buy. We'll see. Wish some of our work was R/L so these clerks could be upended when they mess people up.

I'm surprised to hear that any modern external drive would be so fragile. I wonder would not a USB thumb/flash drive at a cost of only a few dollars serve the purpose without having that problem?

You might try something like this:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/SanDisk-1TB-Extreme-Portable-External-SSD-SDSSDE61-1T00-G2 5/196332367

Even if it lacks the capacity you need, it certainly is rugged enough for travel and allows you to have a backup until you get home and can backup on a larger drive.

I have one and it is.... FAST! It's much faster than any of my thumb drives.

I managed to purchase both a rugged external safe device and the appropriate cord. Not it's a mater of finding out what I have left. Everything on the original one is gone since it can't be accessed: music, illustrations, stories I've been working on (believe I have less up to date versions but still), correspondance and addresses. I'm still annoyed.

Have you tried DMDE software recovery tool? Recovery depends on cause however and bust spring goes not sound good. I have recovered data from three external drives using it. The best part is you can use the free version to see if it works and only buy the paid version, still pretty cheap, if it does.

It sounds like Staples needs a spanking. There are a few young ladies.......