Unusual Hard Drive Noise - Seagate (w/15 sec audio clip)

[Thapaster]

Hi,

My Seagate 2TB Expansion Desktop noise: http://vocaroo.com/media_command.php?media=s1QdVTzcC9K8&command=download_mp3
or: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1QdVTzcC9K8
(No offence) For deaf people: Disk spins up before something else goes click-beep+click-beep, click-beep, then disk spins down.)

The HD cannot be recognized or detected. Can someone give me an idea whats going on, and maybe how I can go about fixing it.

Backstory
I've had this hard drive just long enough to miss the 2 year warranty Seagate gave for it.
I've never dropped it, never did anything to it that a freaking snow flake couldn't handle (I took care of her and treated her like a queen).

All of a sudden, while copying over some files windows prompted me with this---> "the request could not be performed because of an i/o device error".
Then my laptop started lagging because of the hard drive, so I removed it (laptop returns to normal state) and plugged it back in. Then the noise+blue light blinking started and the HD cannot be recognized or detected at all (apart from a couple of initial plug ins where the HD was recognized but as soon as I opened a file, laptop started lagging and HD died.)

What I've already tried(not in order):
- Cry myself to sleep.
- Restarting the computer.
- Trying on another computer.
- Checked the hard drive with Disk Management, SeaTools, Device Manager(show as 'Unknown Device') and a bunch of others and it's still not detected.
- Mounting the hard drive on to a new docking station (Inateck), in hope that it was just a 'PCIe to SATA Bridge' failure. It wasn't.
- Carefully checked to see if the heads were stuck on the platter(in a clean room). And no they weren't.
- Cry some more.
- Swapped the power adapter and USB cable.
- Blowing into the PCIe sockets.

What I'm willing to do:
- DIY
- Getting rich and sending the HD to a Data recovery specialist. (But I can hold off on this for a while because I don't really want to be rich right now).

Thank you for reading all that and for trying to help me.

[northwind]

Hi
I have some bad news and then some more bad news.

This

- Carefully checked to see if the heads were stuck on the platter(in a clean room). And no they weren't.

has most probably turned an already expensive recovery to an even more expensive one, if possible at all.

This

My Seagate 2TB Expansion Desktop noise: http://vocaroo.com/media_command.php?media=s1QdVTzcC9K8&command=download_mp3

means that your drive has severe mechanical issues and I'm afraid there's absolutely nothing you can DIY.
It was also too obvious from the noise it makes that the heads weren't stuck on the platters, so you opened the drive for no reason.

By the sound of it, it's bad; most likely there is also media damage involved
I'm very sorry to say this, but there is no good sign this story will have a good ending.

I suggest you do not power up the drive again, and have a good DR company evaluate the drive (we can suggest a good company depending on where you live). Some labs offer free evaluation, so at least you will know what you're up against.
Best of luck.