Hello, experts. I would love to get some advice, please.

I have HDD (Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000524AS) that was serving for 5+ years, showing signs of wearing down (like lower read/write speed), that one day started making loud rhythmic clicking sounds during work.
After hearing that and finding out that HDD was the source of the sounds (that took around 10-20 minutes) I turned computer off without trying to access data (this disk contained no OS, so I don't know if it was still readable at that moment or not).
After that, when computer is being turned on, HDD always makes few identical loud clicks, then stops trying to work, goes silent, and then computer finally boots without detecting this HDD in BIOS.
I, of course, removed HDD after few tries.

I have read some info and as far as I understand, that very well can be some mechanic failure, requiring opening HDA for professional maintenance.
How do you think, is there any significant chance that this problem may be cured by only replacing PCB outside by myself (if I buy the identical HDD)?

I have some very important and sensitive personal information on that HDD.

The chances that the PCB is the culprit in this scenario is less than 0,5%.

Since you're saying you have important and sensitive data in this drive I would suggest to consult a good professional who will deal with this drive. DON'T experiment with it. DON'T POWER IT UP ANYMORE.

Contact File-service company in Novosibirsk (www.file-service.ru)

_________________
http://www.northwind.gr
SandForce SSD Recovery
Ransomware Reverse Engineering - NoMoreRansom! partners