Hello everyone
Im new on this forum and interested in hdd data recovery.
I have one external hdd which is malfunctioning. I got it out from its enclosing and recorded the sound it gives when booting up.
The disc gets recognized by my PC but it does not show up.
Can You guys give em some insights what to do next?
https://soundcloud.com/banana-feet/hdd/s-sZLl2

Sounds like a WD drive with bad heads to me.

Tornado at a guess, but the sound quality is poor.

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It is a wd excactly wd6400AAKS.
Can you please elaborate what do you mean by "tornado". Sry if it's a dumb question but im new to this field and trying to learn something.

Tornado is a family name for a range of WD drives.

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Hey there ImDaMan,

How was the drive used? Since I can't open the sound file I can't really tell what might be the problem. I can advise you to run WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool and see if the drive passes both the quick and the extended tests. If it fails, check which parameter gives the error - that should tell you what's wrong with the drive. Here's a link to the tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=jPUu8B

Do post back with the results of the tests

Captain_WD.

Nobody who values his professional reputation would recommend WD's Data Lifeguard. It does not tell the user how many bad sectors the drive has, or how many read errors it has racked up. Nor does it report "slow" sectors. It is a tool that is aimed at minimising warranty returns.

The user is not interested in whether his drive qualifies for warranty replacement. He has asked about data recovery. Does WD have any data recovery tools?

I recommend CrystalDiskInfo for detailed SMART information, and MHDD or HDDScan for an honest assessment of the drive's heads/media. Data LifeGuard is a waste of effort.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Drive has physical issues, spinning down by the sounds of it indicating bad heads. Or possibly a bad PCB mimicking failed heads, which has been known on this model.

So WD DLGT will not help here.

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It will probably damage the drive further.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

As will any further software tinkering

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Will "broken" heads damage the platters or / and cause more sector damage each time it is started (on WD for example)

I know that if there is physical damage this might be logical, but if heads fail because of death or static, can they cause damage too?

It's a well established fact that the more you allow a drive to click the lower its chances for recovery. Maybe in some cases the damage is minimal, but still not a good idea. If it's clicking, there is nothing at all you can do with just a computer and software, period. So why waste your time anyway.

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I am more interested in how that comes about, not thinking about doing stuff, just trying to understand the technical side of it.

I would think that a heads that doesn't work anymore or failed preamplifier will not change magnetism on the disc when the head motor keeps on trying to align to disk data and thus clicks, or maybe it does when there is some magnetism influence depending on head state.

Or do the heads actually touch the disk and cause damage in some cases (I am still referring to non dropping damage, so real electronic failures that cause physical damage) ?

think about what the click IS.. it is a noise as a result of subjecting a head to forces it is not meant to receive and stopping it suddenly. maybe grab a drive, any drive. open it up and have a look under a magnifying glass at the head. you will see it is not just a reading thing on the end of a stick, but a tiny, tiny little thing suspended on some kind of spring, suspension. The second the drive starts doing things the engineers did not intend it to do.. things going to go pear shaped, fast. whether it actually hits something or scratches something is irrelevant for the most part.