Should I open my hard drive?

[dave343]

I had my 5 year old Maxtor 120gb with 5 years worth of data in an external case that sat ontop of my case. Over the weekend the case fell from the top fo the case (on top of my desk) to the ground and hit carpet. The drive was still on but as soon as it hit the ground stated to make "clunk clunk" noises. I need the data, but it's not worth a data recovery company. It's family photo', my documents over the last 5 years, stuff like that. I've tried to place the drive on different sides to get it going again... should I try and open the case up, see if there's something I can fix, maybe a stuck head?

 

[xenotype]

If you open your harddrive, its toast. It has to be opened in a clean room. Any particles land on the platters and its fried. Harddrives are not user serviceable. Sorry.

 

[axan]

you can try freezing it, stick it in a freezer for few hours then try accessing it.