Greetings experts,

I have a Seagate BarraCuda 4TB drive with semi important data on it. It was an external drive and felt from desktop tower while mounted
After that accident when plugged you hear four clicking noises and then silence. Because local DR is not worth the data on it, I tried to check if there are maybe just the heads stuck, so I opened it (yes, I know about the risks… but I did in a pretty clean environment). Another older HDD I could rescue that way… so I gave it a try.

But they are not just stuck, instead I can see it spins and the heads are moving 2x2 times and making this sound.

Any idea what it means and what I could try?

Video: https://salzwerk.eu/tmp/hdd.mp4

Drive Info:

Heads are dead that is why it is spinning down. Possible media damage on some of the platter surfaces.

Not much you can do unless you want to buy your own donor and try a head swap. But would not recommend

thanks for your fast reply. I thought that… so also nothing unconventional I could try? I mean dead is dead… I cannot make it worse, so I'm free to try anything (even probably stupid things) that doesn't cause big costs.

No.
Heads are dead. 99% there is also media damage to the drive, which means that even if you successfully replace the heads and bypass other problems, the drive won't read.

The only thing you can do if you want to officially FUBAR the drive is to buy tools and donors and practice.
Sorry, no alternative or unconventional ways.

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