Hi guys - first post so be gentle with me.

I have never lost data over the years through a bad HDD but I suspect I have one now.

The drive, when switched on and plugged into my PC spins up, then clicks a few times then spins down.

I have read much over the past few weeks and suspecting a stuck read head, I opened the Hard Drive cover to investigate - I know, I know, I know - no lectures please - I am fully aware of what I have done.

I am in last resort mode. The data isn't life threatening - just family photos and haven't been backed up I know I know etc etc - see previous sentence

I can freely rotate the platter(s) - the heads seem parked on the inner most track and can be gently moved away whilst spinning the platter, although they seem stuck as a slight click is felt when moving away and afterwards when putting them back, they seem to click back too (magnetism perhaps?).

However I really do not know what the problem is and I have probably made things worse by removing the cover.

The drive has been extensively used in several HDD caddies - I have bought a new one, to see if I could kick it back into life, too no avail

So it spins up, clicks a few times then spins down over about 15/20 seconds. Windows doesn't see the drive of course. It is partitioned into 3 equal partitions (NTFS).

So as a last resort, is there anything you experts could suggest to try in order that I could try to recover what's on the HDD ???

I am willing to spend up to say £100 sterling on tools/parts etc but no more - sending it off for professional recovery isn't an option in view of the charges.

I have noted down the PCB and Arm No.s before closing the drive back up.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated. Although new on this forum, I have recovered drives before using software but only when Windows sees the drive in question

TIA

roz

The odds are, you are toast with your budget. The cost of the parts drive alone is likely to exceed your budget...and Samsung drives are not easy to source for donor parts.

But, that being said, you haven't even diagnosed the original problem and likely have compounded it by opening the drive. So, my suggestion is to toss the drive or set it aside until you decide that it is worth going to a data recovery pro.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

100£ is likely the cost of a complete diagnose alone. Anyway the problem seem far beyond DIY. Good luck.

So no tips/tricks or things I could try on a "DIY" basis then?

Sorry no.