The first thing I should mention is that I am a complete noob as far as hard disk drives are concerned, and I'm posting my struggle to back up data from a supposedly failing drive. The steps I've taken, and the end result, are worth knowing for every other noob, that comes to this forum with such problems.

So I've had this external USB drive Trekstor DS Maxi m.u 500 gb since 2008. It has been working flawlessly so far, despite a really big workload it has been subject to. A month ago the drive started to have trouble spinning up - it would beep and click and when I put my ear to the casing, I would hear the motor trying to speed up, not managing to reach its required speed - the drive would eventually start, but each time it took longer and longer. I started reading and, with some forum information + wikipedia, I came to a conclusion that the problem was stiction - it was the first time I came across this term. The diagnosis - the drive will start a few more times and then it will most probably be junk. I ordered a brand new WD external hdd to transfer my data. When I got the order I tried to start the Trekstor, but it didn't start for hours. I thought the drive was dead - and that is when my adventure began.

I found some tutorials, forums and youtube videos with "data recovery for the extremely desperate" and done such horrible things:

1. Heated up my drive on a radiator, then in an oven to 150 deg. Celsius
2. Froze my drive for an hour in -18 deg.
3. Hit it with a hammer on the side to unstick the head
4. Dropped it on a flat surface on the side, also to unstick the head
5. Shook it in various angles, even plugged in, so I would help the motor spin up with my own momentum
6. Powered it off multiple times, unplugged it from sata without powering off, etc.

Nothing worked, so I came to the moment, when I thought everything was lost. I found a video with a guy manually spinning up a hard drive with its case removed. "This is what I have to do" - I thought. I was just about to unscrew the cover, when for a second I thought: what if it's not the drive...? I removed the Samsung SpinPoint F HD502IJ 500 GB, which was inside the Trekstor enclosure, and plugged it into my PC. It started immediately. I've copied all the data without problems, formatted the drive, and gave it a good old surface scan. No problems, no bad sectors... That is how I came to conclusions I had to share:

1. Make sure you check everything before you try drastic measures
2. Brutal DIY methods probably won't work anyway
3. Samsung SpinPoint F HD502IJ 500 GB is a tough-ass HDD !:D

Feel free to repost this, as a little lesson for other hdd noobs, like myself, on the web, looking for an answer

Leszek

Good post, and sound advice (eventually!!!)

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I went one step further and mounted a disk and one of them pico-atx mobos on a spinning plywood plate. Powered by a cordless screwdriver. I revved it to high speed. powered on the makeshift "pc", and jammed a plunger into the works to break stiction. Everything stopped spinning immediately except the platters in the disk. Thus breaking them free.

This was not too long after the operation with the jeep winch.

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On a clear disk you can seek forever.