Got a Seagate Barracuda LP 1.5TB drive (exact drive # available when I'm home from work, sry). I recorded the sound it makes. Its in this youtube video (sorry I couldn't attach an mp3...): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSA3qdMmX_I
[EDIT]: The loud click at the very beginning of the video is me turning the power on for the enclosure, it does not come from the drive itself.

Its in an external enclosure (though I have taken it out and tested it as an internal drive with the same results).

About 4 days ago all requests to it started failing. Couldn't access the data. Rebooting the computer brought froze on "detecting IDE drives..."

Opening the enclosure (which was doing a great job dampening noise apparently...) revealed that the drive was not spinning up successfully (or that is how it sounded to me). It sounds like its trying to take off (like an airplane), getting higher and higher pitched for about 15 seconds, then it suddenly stops, then starts for ~2 seconds, then stops, and continues the 2 seconds / stop cycle indefinitely. Since I can't really describe the sound with words, I just put a mic up to the drive.

It sounds like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSA3qdMmX_I
The video is just a random royalty free image. Ignore it.

I don't really care if the drive dies in the long term, and the truly irreplaceable data is backed up, but there's quite a bit of really-hard-but-not-impossible-to-replace data on there that I'd like to get off the drive before opening the drive up and removing all the coasters and fridge magnets.

Thanks for any help and I'm happy to provide more info if needed!

It's an internal fault or there is an hw issue. A better analysis is required - multiple causes.

Sorry, but I'm having some trouble following your response.


As in its not logic board? What is the scope of 'internal'?


hw=Hardware. As opposed to...?


Thats what I'm hoping to find here, a great analysis


You think there are multiple possible causes, or multiple problems already?

Sorry for my ignorance! Let me know if theres any more info I can provide that might help with further analysis.

One last thought: My house is absurdly hot recently, some days 36 degrees C (97 F), and the enclosure was quite hot when it stopped responding. That mean anything?

You have to send drive to get it analyzed with dedicated equipment. Temperature : unless the drive reached 80 deg. C may not be a cause. Eventually a concause.