Hard Drive Dead?

[TheLordsServant]

Well, I have this 6 year old 120GB drie, and I don't really use it, but I put it in a external housing and decided to get my files off of it. So I plugged it into my G4 Mac, and then it started going "klunk-klunk-klunk-kalunk" kinda like that. If I had a method of recording it, I would. And then the computer came up with a message saying that the disk is unreadable by the computer. Do you guys think it's gone for good? It's got some stuff on it that I sure would like to get back, but it doesn't sound like I'm going to be able to do that

 

[digital_exhaust]

If it's audibly "klunking" my guess is it's dead... but I could be wrong...
I have heard of people freezing...seriously...their dying drives, and being able to at least snag some data from the drive after doing so... but I'm not sure that will work in your situation, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try, as it sounds like it's on death's doorstep as it is.....

The only other thing I could think of is the possibility that the drive is not securely placed in the enclousure allowing it to "flop" around while spinning up, thus causing the noise and your problems, so you might check that as well....

 

[TheLordsServant]

Now this is interesting. I unplugged the housing, plugged it back in again, and, voila, no klunking, clicking or anything, and it works perfectly! Strange...