I now have a failed Samsung 250Gb HDD. When powered on, the disk spins up, I hear a lot of clicking for a few seconds, then it spins down. I assume that this is pretty fatal and I've lost its contents (unfortunate, but not worth what a recovery company would charge).

Anyway, this first happened right after I had done a major room renovation where I had to disassemble everything and move it out, then put it back together again. This HDD was in an external USB enclosure: a rather cheap one made to be stacked, and designed in such a way that it really looks the same on top and bottom unless you look real closely to see the logo.

Well, in my hurry to get everything plugged together and get back online again, I set this on top of my PC upside down. It was when I later powered it on that the failure occurred. After a few tries I realized that the unit was in the wrong position. I corrected that, but the drive continues to fail to start up.

So is it possible that a simple spin-up in the upside-down position was enough to damage the drive in this way, or was this just a coincidence? I realize that drives aren't supposed to operate in that position, but I wouldn't think that one would instantly and permanently fail for that reason alone.

Pure coincidence. Drives are designed to operate in either position.

Gone. Head. Pro is the solution. Don't do this wrong step again with drives.

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What do you mean by "Pro is the solution"??

hard drives are designed to operate standing up / upside down. I dont think it matters how it was positioned.

Pro- only a professional can fix it. P.s. How much is your budget? Maybe someone here can give you a special offer.

PRO is a Russian acronym
means Anti Missiles Defence

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