What's the problem of my HDD?

[cornmouse]

My external hard disk (Western Digital SATA 640GB) is not recognizable by my laptop. I believe it's the hard disk mechanism failure because it has been acting weird these few days where at one point i saw error messages to format the hard drive and whenever I wanted to open a folder, I'd get message saying the specified resource or device is not available. Then, after awhile it will be available again. But since 2 days ago, the hard drive is not being recognized at all and it is making repetitive faint ticking sound. I've tried changing the enclosure and it's still the same. However, during these 2 days, it worked once and seemed fine but I turned it off after awhile cos I didn't have a new hard disk in hand to back up all the data. Actually I've just bought a new hard disk few days ago but I haven't received it yet!! I'm really hoping it wasn't the last time that it could work again!

I'd like to know what is the problem of the HDD and is it possible to recover the whole hard disk. Does it require clean room facility?

[hddmania]

try taking the drive out of the external case and directly conect to the PC. My guess is that the drive is dead but if it was just the bad external case, this will take care of the problem!

[cornmouse]

I've already tried changing the case to a new one

[cornmouse]

May I ask for my HDD case, it produces very soft clicking sound for these 2-3 days, but it got detected once or twice by my laptop during these times. Does anyone know whether its the head/arm actuator/circuit board problem? I'm really worried about it and can't do anything else right now. My heart beats so fast

Do you think it will work again? I've turned it off because I want to wait until when I have my new hard disk to do copying.. I can't afford to send it to clean room facility

[BlackST]

Either it is going to die , if not already died. 95% head problems, 5% everything else. If you are lucky enough you'll be able to copy what is really important. If not, you need pro service. The more you go with trial and error with software , stuff found on the net, advice from people, the less chances. Sad but true.

[Alexii]

Most likely head(s) at fault here m8. There is a chance that it will play ball for u for a little. But thats what it is , a chance.

[cornmouse]

alright.. does head problems require clean room facility? I'm so sad that it couldn't wait for the arrival of my new hard disk!

[Alexii]

Honestly truthfull answer will be no. U can achive the level of cleanliness needed without an actuall cleanroom. Yet working on the internal components of HDD without clean room is increasing the risk of failure. As for the head swap procedure itself - here is the link. http://hddguru.com/content/en/articles/ ... k-Q-and-A/

Now with all that said - be warned. U are gambling with ur data. 1 wrong move during the swap and u kill the heads or damage the platter. Also , most data recovery companies will charge extra if u bring the drive that has been opened.

[BlackST]

I wouldn't open anything out of clean room and witout use of demagnetised tools AND of course you should know what you're doing... Seems that the drive doesn't contain any important data...

[cornmouse]

oh its not that the drive isn't important..
but facilities here are much cheaper if it doesn't require clean room facility. I'm a poor student........

[cornmouse]

i forgot to mention when it miraculously managed to work yesterday after 2 days of clicking, i used a listmaker software to generate a list of all my files on the drive. Then I did a huge mistake -- I ran disk checking and the report I got was perfect. So I thought I should be able to turn it on again and then turned it off to wait for my new hard disk to arrive. But today, it doesn't work. I researched more and found out that I should not have performed disk checking, such stressful jobs I am really too naive, always thought I will have a second chance. I should not have shut it off, probably kept it running (playing songs continuously) is a better choice!

[cornmouse]

Has anyone used DriveFish before?

[thatdellguy]

After reading the About Us page I'm 100% sure its a logical recovery company. Which means you could probably get about the same service from BestBuy. The problem with sending your drive to a company like this is that they don't do physical repairs and will most likely leave you with a more damaged drive.

[networkpc3000]

make it worst already. send it to data recovery company as well.

[cornmouse]

When I ran the disk checking, I didn't tick the 2 options (Automatically fix system file errors and fix bad sectors)... Did I make the drive worse?

[cornmouse]

My university has a data recovery center that provides some basic services except that they "do not have the facilities to repair a drive that is damaged to the point that it must be taken apart and completely rebuilt internally."

I believe it's done by A+ certified technician. Shall I go for it?

[thatdellguy]

A+ certification means that they can remove four screws, replace the drive, pop in a new one, and reinstall the OS. I got A+ back in 1998 and I was pissed it was so easy. IMHO A+ was just made up so the test maker could make some easy money. It has no gauge on how much a technician knows about data recovery.

[cornmouse]

Ok, so I must look for pros that have CDRP certs?
now i'm worried to hand my drive to someone who will damage it to the point that nth can be recovered!

Datahound seems trustable.. hmm.. it may be a good choice for me.

[BlackST]

You should be worried about the pricing and if you can afford it first. THEN according to your budget you can make a decision....

[cornmouse]

I'm also worried that not all my data can be recovered. Not sure if I did more damage to it after turning it on and off for few times...
The last time that it worked (after almost a day of clicking), I could still see all my files.

Many people say that if they could recover the HD, it'll be all or nothing. It's rare that they could only recover partial data. Is it true?