Hard drive clicking

[snoke308]

I'm sure this has already been addressed and there are other posts about it, and if so please point me to those posts, as I currently do not have the time to through them all.

My problem is my seagate free agent go 320gb. I woke up and listened to music from it and then decided to copy a folder from my thumb drive to it, then it froze, and I tried closing the window and using the task manager and that didn't work, so I hard-shutdown my computer and when I restarted it, the external hard drive was beeping a constant beep and never quit. My heart sank because my first thought was that it was dead and after a day of reading posts and searching the internet for help, my mind hasn't changed. Any more help is appreciated and if you need any more information I will supply it. I'm a computer technician at a college so I know a good amount about computers, but I don't want to start taking things apart yet.

[hddmania]

If it's beeping, you got the seized motor/spinle. It passed the DIY stage... If the data is not that important, RMA the drive!

[craig6928]

got a hard drive here same make

you think its got a alarm inside it

but its the seized motor making that beep beep beep beep

only way is now data recovery company

[snoke308]

the data isn't exactly life ending stuff but it's data that I'd like very much not to lose. there's no chance of plugging it directly into my computer? or that the beeps are because my drive isn't getting enough power anymore?

[fzabkar]

the data isn't exactly life ending stuff but it's data that I'd like very much not to lose. there's no chance of plugging it directly into my computer? or that the beeps are because my drive isn't getting enough power anymore?

If your drive came with a single ended USB cable, then it is possible that it is not getting enough power to spin up the motor. Of course this begs the question, why now and not before?

Anyway, the easiest thing to try is a USB Y-cable. A standard USB port is current limited to 500mA. Your drive probably needs about 850mA during spin up, and about 400mA thereafter. A Y-cable will pick up power from two USB ports.

If the above doesn't work, then it could be that your drive's motor may be seized.

Alternatively, the heads may have come to rest on a smooth section of the platters, resulting in stiction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiction#Hard_disk_drives

This thread may interest you (it has a couple of success stories):
samsung-portable-500gb-dead-t14351.html#p99445

Just be aware that heads are fragile, and that "percussive maintenance" has risks.

[networkpc3000]

the data isn't exactly life ending stuff but it's data that I'd like very much not to lose. there's no chance of plugging it directly into my computer? or that the beeps are because my drive isn't getting enough power anymore?

If your drive came with a single ended USB cable, then it is possible that it is not getting enough power to spin up the motor. Of course this begs the question, why now and not before?

Anyway, the easiest thing to try is a USB Y-cable. A standard USB port is current limited to 500mA. Your drive probably needs about 850mA during spin up, and about 400mA thereafter. A Y-cable will pick up power from two USB ports.

If the above doesn't work, then it could be that your drive's motor may be seized.

Alternatively, the heads may have come to rest on a smooth section of the platters, resulting in stiction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiction#Hard_disk_drives

This thread may interest you (it has a couple of success stories):
samsung-portable-500gb-dead-t14351.html#p99445

Just be aware that heads are fragile, and that "percussive maintenance" has risks.

hi,
you know this way with risk even make platters damage. why keep link it to others guy?

[disktech]

If drives is beeping means motor stuck or jam. only way to swap platter to other drive and you can extract data with my experience chances are 70 to 85% few percentage of platter scratch if motor jam.. but need expereince technician or data recovery company who can do your work .. but do not do this work with your self if you are not expereince..

[fzabkar]

you know this way with risk even make platters damage. why keep link it to others guy?

That particular thread includes adequate warnings from Pepe. It's up to the owner of the hard drive if s/he wants to take the risk.

[disktech]

you know this way with risk even make platters damage. why keep link it to others guy?

That particular thread includes adequate warnings from Pepe. It's up to the owner of the hard drive if s/he wants to take the risk.

Agree with you friend..!!