I've got a Seagate Momentus 5400.2 SATA Model ST98823A2 that has un-backed up data on it. Currently, it is not detected by BIOS nor MHDD and when powering it up, it makes 4 distinct clicks. When I hold my ear up to it, I can hear the platters spinning, and the a soft repeating sounds which I assume to be the heads moving (maybe parking and unparking?). As I've learned in the past, each HD has it's own characterstic actions when it dies in a particular way. My question is, does anyone recognize this as indicating a failed head? failed pre-amp? failed logic board? I'd like to rule out ALL possibilities before opening the drive, but if it means a failed head, failed pre-amp, etc, then no sense in wasting my time with other (non-opening the drive) measures .

Thank you for time and help.
hdamateur

I have seen a lot of these drive fail in the same way. Post mortem often reveals multiple problems such as bad heads + corrupted data, etc. Often changing heads will not fix the problem. Don't waste your time . . . these are not easy to fix, even for pros.

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So, the 4-clicks isn't particularly indicative of a particular failure mode? And it's likely it's got internal physical probs? (My main goal is to recover some pic's and other data on it for a person that does photography)

Seagate Momentus 5400.2 SATA Model ST98823A2

Rotor spinning, 4 clicks, stops, spinning again with NO CLICKS : failed preamp (and also usually includes heads...)

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Thank you for your time. I think at this point, it's not worth pursuing any further. If I do get back to it down the road, I will post any interesting results I have.