Difficulty accessing USB storage device + clicks...now what?

[Scruffy]

Apologies for the long post...just trying to supply as much information in the hope someone here can help with a hard drive problem.

I am trying to see if I can recover data from a friend's "crashed" IDE (PATA) hard drive. The computer seems to recognize certain aspects of the drive, but I can't access the drive, and I'm looking for (1) help interpreting what Windows is telling me about the drive and (2) recommendations for additional low-cost alternatives to achieve my goal of recovering data.

My desktop computer is SATA, and I didn't want to fork over money for a large drive enclosure, so I purchased a cheap USB-to-PATA/SATA adapter (Kingswin USI-2535) to connect it to my Windows 7 laptop...the adapter has precious little documentation, but I believe I assembled it correctly. Here's the problem:

If I attach the drive through the USB connector, the drive begins spinning and makes about 8 click noises. Afterward, it sounds like the drive continues to spin.

The drive does not appear in Windows Explorer. However, when I go to Control Panel-->Hardware and Sound-->Devices and Printers, it shows a "USB Storage" device along with my printers and other devices.

If I click on the "Properties" of this device, and go to the "Hardware" tab, it shows two device functions, "Samsung SPIN0401N USB Device" and a "USB Mass Storage Device". It claims both of these devices are working properly. (The drive is indeed a Samsung Model SPIN0401N 40GB drive.)

After a few minutes, however, the USB storage device will somehow disconnect itself. I have gotten a message previously saying that the device driver could not be installed. The IDE-to-USB adapter came with no drivers (except for use with Windows98), so I presume it's trying to install something from Windows 7.

The box says the device is compatible with Windows Vista, though I tried it on my Vista desktop and got no better results.

Also, if I attach the drive and go into Windows Explorer, right click on Computer and select "Manage," the IDE drive does not appear in the "Disk Management" section.

However, if I change the jumper on the drive to "slave" (rather than "master" or "cable select"), then going into the Disk Management section brings up a dialog box prompting me to "Initialize Disk"--telling me "You must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it" and offering me two partition styles (Master Boot Record is pre-selected).

Can someone tell me what's going on here and what this information is telling me about the health of the drive and it's components? For example, does this info suggest that the drive's PCB is OK?

If Windows can't access the drive, does that mean that I can't try drive-recovery software? Does that mean that it might be worth initializing the disk with an MBR, or will that risk damaging all the data on the drive?

So what do the HHDGURUs suggest I do from this point forward in my attempt to recover files from this drive?

(For whatever it's worth, I'm willing to make a modest investment to save the data on the drive--perhaps $100--but it's not worth the price charged by data recovery services.)

Any help you can provide is appreciated.

Thanks.

[drc]

If your drive is clicking on power-on, there's not going to be anything cheap you can do to save it

[harddrivespecialist]

low-cost alternative is to buy a new drive, install it and move on with your life.

Other option is to send it to data recovery company, because if you temper with that drive, price will clime up every time you power that drive up.

harsh, but true.

[Scruffy]

drc and harddrivespecialist--

Thanks for giving me the sober truth--not the result I wanted to hear, but I prefer truth to happiness.

It just seemed I was "close" to getting Windows to read it.

If I decide to make an investment and take it to a specialist...do you have any recommendations or suggestions for finding a good one? (Feel free to refer me to another thread or a review website.)

Thanks again for your help.

[porthas]

Recommending anyone would be considered as advertisment of own company, as most of the gurus here are working in different companies. There are plenty of companies out there. Do google search and verify datarecoverycomparison.com for reviews, but in reality, most of the companies have bad reviews out there, doesn't mean they are all bad companies. As myself, I would recommend either Ontrack, SalvageData or DriveSavers. The price isn't cheap, but you will get the data for sure.

It just seemed I was "close" to getting Windows to read it.

The closest it will get is to recognise the enclosure. You will not get it to work. If you keep trying to make it work, you will either make it unrecoverable or make it more difficult to recover = more $$$.

[Scruffy]

Thanks, Porthas, especially for the tip about the Data Recovery Comparison web site. Very helpful.