I have a failed Samsung HDD, it spontaneously died a few days ago. User was writing a document, laptop froze, so the user held down the power button.. Funnily enough, when the user turned the laptop back on again, it couldn't detect an OS (in this case Windows).
After a few tries by myself to fix, it then lost sight of the HDD completely, various DOS based data recovery freeware failed to detect the drive, including a live boot of GParted.

The drive is now connected externally to my laptop using a SATA to USB case reader, not recognised by Windows at all.

Weirdly, the HDD makes some clicking sounds as it recieves power, only for about 3-4 seconds, its not a constant click..

Anyone experienced this before, any ideas? At a guess, after doing some research it looks like a firmware failure and it will need professional recovery.. But I thought I'd ask before that!

It's needing proper diagnosis!

Firmware issues on that model are pretty rare, but not unheard of, but more likely to be a physical issue.

Even if it is firmware, there is nothing you can do without the proper tools.

My advice is not to power the drive up any more, to lessen the chances of further damage making recovery more difficult/expensive or impossible.

We can offer a free diagnosis and quote for recovery if you care to send it to us.

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