HDD experiencing clicking, is it really over? Can it be salvaged

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Jon1962

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Dear friends, really need your advice. I have a 2TB barracuda internal HDD which is experiencing clicking problems. It clicks for about 10 seconds after boot up and then stops clicking. There are no grinding sounds. HDD is undetectable in Bios and windows does not boot up.

It happened 2 days ago when my computer hung and I did a dirty restart by switching off and then on. After being unable to access my bios, I restarted it a few times and the HDD started to click. I tried booting it up a few times to try my best to fix it after which I left it alone and stopped using it.

After trawling the net for info, I am really worried about the platter scratching as I have very precious family memories inside. What are the chances of platter scratching and making any form of recovery? I am prepared to send it to a professional firm..

It was my fault for not backing up and I truly learnt my lesson this time around. If it helps, my HDD has about 300 GB empty. Around 3.5 years old - I did not drop the drive.
 
it sounds pretty dead to me you can try the freezer trick but it has never worked for me with the 14 drives i tried it on.
another possibilty is to open the haddrive and gentle move the arm way from the platter while rotation the platter to follow the motion ( minimzes scratching)

pro place will be expensive since it not just software recovery
 
I've only done the freezer trick once, about 15 years or so ago. it did work...I make sure to do backups now though. If you do get it working start with the important stuff just in case
If you have an adapter you can keep it hooked up in the freezer while copying. seal it in a bag with some silica gel. don't copy too much at a time.

If you have the money for a pro place then you probably should just go with that option?
May I recommend backblaze for next time ;)
 
I know it's the antihisys of all many here hold dear.. but subscribe to a cloud service. (I do office 365) and backup your important documents there as well. That way in a total loss scenario.. like this. You will still have access to your important files and even in a situation such as a flood or home fire... all of your documents would be available on the cloud service.
 
Thank you for the replies mates, hope to hear more opinions. I am at my wit's end here.
 
Jon, you didn't inadvertently post them on Facebook or something? Just some hopeful thoughts. Short of this you are going to have to shell out to a data recovery service. And it isn't cheap. :(
 
Grimlaking said:
Jon, you didn't inadvertently post them on Facebook or something? Just some hopeful thoughts. Short of this you are going to have to shell out to a data recovery service. And it isn't cheap. :(
Click to expand...
No I didn't, why? I am thinking of approaching Kroll, but am unsure if my platters are scratched
 
Yeah, data recovery places, woof. I tell people around here that unless it's going to get you out of legal trouble or something serious like that, it's often not worth it.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Yeah, data recovery places, woof. I tell people around here that unless it's going to get you out of legal trouble or something serious like that, it's often not worth it.
Click to expand...

If you're married, and those pictures are of your young kids and memories with them.. you don't want to tell your significant other that "It wasn't worth it." You might as well sell a kidney on the black market first. ;)
 
back your data up to a new device asap. Never do the freezer trick. Why? After it being in the freezer, and moved into a warmer climate, the drive can have condensation build up inside. If the drive was recoverable, but then developed condensation, your data is potentially toast. The freeze trick is a bad idea. Sure some folks got lucky, and got it to work, but its a total crap shoot.
 
I have recovered a few drives that clicked like crazy back to fully operational.
The cause appears to be a bad write after an unexpected power off or bad sector(s) in unfortunate places.

I used HDD Regenerator to recover the drives
Even while running, the drives clicked like a loony but eventually calmed down as it fixed the format.
It can take a good day to fully check a drive that size, but it could fix the problem early in the process.

Run the demo, it will fix the first problem it finds and might even be all you need. Not likely, but worth a shot.
Its non destructive so wont make things worse.
http://www.dposoft.net/hdd.html

I recommend having only that one faulty drive in the system so there is no confusion.
 
SvenBent said:
it sounds pretty dead to me you can try the freezer trick but it has never worked for me with the 14 drives i tried it on.
another possibilty is to open the haddrive and gentle move the arm way from the platter while rotation the platter to follow the motion ( minimzes scratching)

pro place will be expensive since it not just software recovery
Click to expand...

You open that drive and a single dust particle can completely eradicate all the data that means anything to you. They are hermetically sealed for a reason.
 
tangoseal said:
You open that drive and a single dust particle can completely eradicate all the data that means anything to you. They are hermetically sealed for a reason.
Click to expand...

*sigh* every time this from people who have never done the things they talk about.
You are exaggerating the issue and/or are misinformed.

Is it bad for the drive for dust to get in there? YES
Does it instantly bust into flames because you take the top of and re attached it? NO
Do you have anything to lose when the drive is already "dead"? NO
 
Be careful with the firm you select to attempt to recover your data.
Choose a well known company with good feedback, clean room, etc.

Most of the cheap companies do just the easy stuff to try to recover the data.
Tried a few of them and so far none of them were able to recover anything from dead drives where
I have already attempted non-destructive recovery. Or any drives for that matter.

I picture the cheap companies as college kids in Mom's basement with a freezer full of dead drives. lol

The drive is not giving a ready signal if the BIOS won't see it. I don't know all of the technical
requirements of the drive asserting the ready signal these days. Guessing it's not able to read track 0.
There's also a chance there is a problem with the logic board on the drive.

Do try as suggested above and power up the drive upside down from what it is now. Also try vertically
instead of horizontally. If you get it to recognize the drive don't power it down until you back it up.

It's better to boot from another drive/computer and work with this drive as a secondary drive.
That way you are not depending on it for a stable boot to your OS.

I would not advise the freezer trick or opening the drive. I would try that stuff if the drive had less critical
data, but not in this case. Just try the easy stuff and if you can't get it going, send it out to a good
recovery company.

When you get the system running with a new drive, I can recommend iDrive.com for cloud backup.

Best of luck with this.

ETA: Replace it with a WD or HGST drive, or Samsung SSD.

.
 
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Spartacus said:
Be careful with the firm you select to attempt to recover your data.
Choose a well known company with good feedback, clean room, etc.

Most of the cheap companies do just the easy stuff to try to recover the data.
Tried a few of them and so far none of them were able to recover anything from dead drives where
I have already attempted non-destructive recovery. Or any drives for that matter.

I picture the cheap companies as college kids in Mom's basement with a freezer full of dead drives. lol
Click to expand...
This.

A neighbor came to me with a dying drive.
I recovered a ton of data but there were important things missing.
They sent it away for recovery and it came back with a few garbage txt files recovered.
The recovery firm somehow didnt find the many GB I got from a straight copy and charged hundreds for completely destroying the drive.

Total scam.
 
Try taking the drive out and placing it carefully in an external HDD case, then plugging it to a computer with some drive recovery software, chkdsk it too. I haven't had the need to recover files in years so I can't give much.

But when you have a clicking noise from your SSD then it is definitely messed up, you have to do defrag several times then place a strong magnet on top of it to pull open the stuck NAND gates.
 
Nanogrip said:
Try taking the drive out and placing it carefully in an external HDD case, then plugging it to a computer with some drive recovery software, chkdsk it too. I haven't had the need to recover files in years so I can't give much.

But when you have a clicking noise from your SSD then it is definitely messed up, you have to do defrag several times then place a strong magnet on top of it to pull open the stuck NAND gates.
Click to expand...
Lol, that certainly is a nanogrip you have.
He doesnt have an SSD.
And SSDs are not affected by static magnets. :p
 
SvenBent said:
*sigh* every time this from people who have never done the things they talk about.
You are exaggerating the issue and/or are misinformed.

Is it bad for the drive for dust to get in there? YES
Does it instantly bust into flames because you take the top of and re attached it? NO
Do you have anything to lose when the drive is already "dead"? NO
Click to expand...

Sure thing buddy.

A recovery service OP will cost you thousands if your unlucky. Hiope your data is not worth that much to you.
 
tangoseal said:
Sure thing buddy.

A recovery service OP will cost you thousands if your unlucky. Hiope your data is not worth that much to you.
Click to expand...

It already will since its not in a software recoverable state. Opening the HDD will not change that.


So you sugestion is to do nothing and pay out the ass
my suggestion give him a chance of a free recovery and worstcase the same as you suggestion.



OH NO this drive DIDNT internally combust when taken the lid off and on again

Just like plenty of people have been doing for years as a last resort fix on stuck or mis calibrated arms.

Please tangoseal just stop talking about stuff you have no clue about
 
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SvenBent said:
It already will since its not in a software recoverable state. Opening the HDD will not change that.


So you sugestion is to do nothing and pay out the ass
my suggestion give him a chance of a free recovery and worstcase the same as you suggestion.



OH NO this drive DIDNT internally combust when taken the lid off and on again

Just like plenty of people have been doing for years as a last resort fix on stuck or mis calibrated arms.

Please tangoseal just stop talking about stuff you have no clue about
Click to expand...


Forgetting all the sarcasm I see where you are headed with your logic. And if this is the case then go for it. But just remember you have no idea what I know or don't know. Same for my assessment of you. Let's just agree that yes you can remove the cover but not u you have no options left is the logical thinking behind doing so.

And no one ever suggested the damn thing was gonna act like a GBU-24 when took the cover off sigh...
 
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tangoseal said:
Forgetting all the sarcasm I see where you are headed with your logic. And if this is the case then go for it. But just remember you have no idea what I know or don't know. Same for my assessment of you. Let's just agree that yes you can remove the cover but not u you have no options left is the logical thinking behind doing so.

And no one ever suggested the damn thing was gonna act like a GBU-24 when took the cover off sigh...
Click to expand...

When you say this: "You open that drive and a single dust particle can completely eradicate all the data that means anything to you."
Then i have a clear picture of how much you know about data recovery on harddrives.
This statemen pretty much portrays the lack of experience with it.

Single dust particle. Eradicate ALL the data. You did in fact but emphasis on how bad you thought it would go.
 
SvenBent said:
When you say this: "You open that drive and a single dust particle can completely eradicate all the data that means anything to you."
Then i have a clear picture of how much you know about data recovery on harddrives.
This statemen pretty much portrays the lack of experience with it.

Single dust particle. Eradicate ALL the data. You did in fact but emphasis on how bad you thought it would go.
Click to expand...
alright dude... Im done with you son. /ignore
 
I just got back my drive from Kroll ontrack who said the data is unrecoverable but did not offer anymore explanation or details as to why it was unrecoverable. It is very strange and i am terribly upset after losing all my treasured family photos. Why..
 
Jon, that's so much BS. If they were able to send the drive back then they only tried software solutions most likely. Search for a data recovery service that actually uses a clean room to do the data recovery. They get down to the physical block level. YES THIS IS VERY EXPENSIVE. So get an estimate of cost first.
 
Grimlaking said:
Jon, that's so much BS. If they were able to send the drive back then they only tried software solutions most likely. Search for a data recovery service that actually uses a clean room to do the data recovery. They get down to the physical block level. YES THIS IS VERY EXPENSIVE. So get an estimate of cost first.
Click to expand...

Dear Grim, I have no idea what techniques they used. I left it with them for close to a week for an evaluation. After which, they said that the data was unrecoverable and asked me to get the hdd back.
 
When the drive isn't detected by the bios I've had luck swapping the controller board with another of the same model HDD. Seems when a drive is near death some bit in the controller firmware is flipped for some reason. After this I used HDD regenerator or Spinrite in attempt to clear bad sectors then migrate any recoverable data off immediately offline (do not boot to a windows partition on the drive if you have one). This method doesn't carry the same risk as opening up the platter compartment and I've had about %50 success on various drives. Make sure you get the exact same controller board replacement if you try this. If it doesn't work, put the old controller board back and ship it to a clean room for platter recovery. I've shipped a few drives to clean rooms for clients and there are a few companies who will charge a flat rate (~$800) for recovery and will only charge shipping costs for analysis.

Good luck sir, you should adopt my philosophy of never keeping anything of value in data form. I'd be fine if I lost all of my data. You can always practice lucid dreaming if you need to reminisce about family moments. :D
 
Back up that drive NOW. Physical backup is best, but if ya gotta go cloud storage do it.
 
Jon1962 said:
Dear Grim, I have no idea what techniques they used. I left it with them for close to a week for an evaluation. After which, they said that the data was unrecoverable and asked me to get the hdd back.
Click to expand...

I know it sounds dumb but I'm curious if you tried my original suggestion to flip it over? I had the exact same problem, saw this suggestion online, and it worked. I had it hooked up to my PC with a SATA to USB converter kit and just flipped it upside down and presto, no clicking and I could pull everything off it.
 
Jon1962 said:
Dear Grim, I have no idea what techniques they used. I left it with them for close to a week for an evaluation. After which, they said that the data was unrecoverable and asked me to get the hdd back.
Click to expand...

I looked them up. They do software recovery only. You're looking at near a grand for a recovery service.
 
Jon1962 said:
I just got back my drive from Kroll ontrack who said the data is unrecoverable but did not offer anymore explanation or details as to why it was unrecoverable. It is very strange and i am terribly upset after losing all my treasured family photos. Why..
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that. Don't give up on it yet though.

Will your computer see the drive now or no?

How much did the place charge for the attempt they made?


Just as an FYI thing on the subject:

This video was just posted to the front page showing how a small shop is able to repair some drives.
This type of repair will only fix motor bearing and certain other mechanical issues. It's not able to fix
logical data errors or formatting type problems.

Still interesting to show what is involved though.

https://www.hardocp.com/news/2017/04/07/data_recovery_hard_drive_platter_swap_video

.
 
Hi Spartacus, the evaluation was free and I am considering to bring to other recovery centres. My computer cannot detect the drive. What do you think of CBL Tech?
 
If you are gutsy enough...

You could replace the headers and the circuit board taken from an identical working drive.
 
Jon1962 said:
Hi Spartacus, the evaluation was free and I am considering to bring to other recovery centres. My computer cannot detect the drive. What do you think of CBL Tech?
Click to expand...

I would choose a vendor who does data recovery for businesses, has a clean room, and has been around a while.

Don't know anything about CBL.... link?

I would pick someplace like this:

http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/certifications/choosing-a-data-recovery-company/

This is just a suggestion on the type of vendor to deal with. Do your own due diligence with your vendor selection.

.
 
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