Here is the clip:

https://clyp.it/4q0nyilm

Can somebody tell me what could it possibly mean?

I tried matching the sound found in this website:

http://datacent.com/failing_hard_drive_sounds

But I wasn't able to identify with any of these failing hard drive sounds.

The hard drive is Seagate's ultra mobile SSHD which came with the lenovo's yoga 2 13. Right now I cannot use my laptop unless I take the SSHD out. So I took the SSHD out and now I'm using the Yoga by slotting an SSD however there are important files I want to be able to access stored in the SSHD.

Sounds like the platters are grinded to dust

Any chance of revival of the hard drive for data recovery at the very least?

The hard drive is only about a year old. And the noise isn't constant, the noise appears for about 2 seconds only.

The strange thing is if i plug this hdd back into the laptop, the laptop would get stuck on the manufacturer logo and will not get past it. My OS isn't even in this HDD, I use this HDD for storage purposes only due to it's high capacity.

the OS boots up in the SSD which is how I'm using the laptop right now after taking this HDD out.

Sounds like bad heads.
Don't turn it on anymore or you will do more damage.

Either way this is not a DIY job, send it to a pro if you value your data.

_________________
Web: https://www.day1data.de

Before all of this noise started appearing on this hard drive I did a very silly thing.

I changed the hard drive settings under advanced power settings from HIPM to HIPM+DIPM to minimize my laptop from getting overheated all the time. Basically this is one of the SSD tweaking settings applied to keep the laptop cool. However, I completely forgot I had another HDD (the one getting the noise now) and the settings also applied to that which it shouldn't have since it'sa SATA drive (not SSD!). Maybe the settings of HIPM+DIPM applied to this HDD is the culprit here? It all started happening soon after the change in settings in the power options, previously I didn't face one hiccup from the drive.

Here is a screenshot where i changed the setting to HIPM+DIPM:

I highly doubt this had anything to do with your drive failing. Your SSHD wouldn't let you use HIPM or DIPM unless it supported it. It just puts your drive to sleep and ques up commands to it until it has real work to be done then wakes it back up once there is something important to read or write from the drive.

_________________
Web: https://www.day1data.de

+1

I've heard worse, but definitely agree it's not DIY.

_________________
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http://www.pcimage.co.uk

New!! HDD-PCB.COM for all your PCB and donor HDD requirements!

I'm able to find the exact same hard drive on ebay for $50, is it not worth a try fixin before sending it to the pros?

I know opening the drive up is inviting more damage to the drive but I'm hoping it could be fixed just long enough for quick backup before it goes completely bust. In addition, to make the backup process quicker I can use the software TeraCopy. I hear it can transfer files lightning fast.

The cost trade offs to fixing it yourself vs sending it to the pros seems a bit too tempting to give up the DIY option completely.

If you insist on "having a go" yourself (and inevitably failing and causing more damage) then expect to pay a large upfront fee to the pro and a massively increased recovery cost with significantly reduced chance of recovery due to the attempts.

Sorry to say this, but we see results of botched DIY attempts nearly every day, and they ain't pretty mostly

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What would you call "just long enough" or "fast"

your drive spins 5,200 times every minute, and even if you could copy all your data in 15 mins, that's 78,000 times that platter has spun around.

put it another way, would it be ok to trap a single speck of dust between head and platter then spin the platter 78,000 times?

There are lots of contradictory opinions about DIY'ing hard drive, it's hard to make a choice. Simply too tempting to give up the what on the surface seems to be a 5 minute DIY fix. Some stories you read are complete success with DIY, some utter failure. Looks like it's all shot in the dark, a big gamble which is why I have decided to err on the side of caution. I want the data to be recovered with minimum hassle possible therefore I have sent it to the pros.

So today the results came back from the pros into what could be making the noise. Since everybody heard the audio clip and have a general idea what is happening to the hard drive which is: drives spins up, makes 2 similar noises and then spins down. Afterwards it's all guesswork, could be a head crash, or could be anything.

I was told that the controller and the head is damaged and needs to be replaced to recover data. What I found a bit confusing is the company's reluctance on not repairing the drive but only recovering the data. I mean replacing the parts would make drive in a working condition so why not hand in the drive in a working condition one as well. Additionally, they want the storage medium to be provided to them.

Anyways I'm not impressed, are there any data recovery centers where I can get data (on their storage medium) aswell as the hard drive in functioning state?

The price that I have been given by my local data recovery specialists is about $850. Are these charges even reasonable? Given a choice, I would definitely rather wait for a better offer.

totally reasonable in a lot of circumstances. once you start working on the drive, swapping parts with more than likely second hand then you start really cant trust the drive long term. Yes it is probably common across the board to get drive to working state to recover data and that's all. costs for the DR company can increase quite a lot because you cant normally buy spares from a "spare parts" section of a HDD Manufacturer - you need to source a drive that is likely second hand from the same batch, made in the same factory at the same time in many cases - or match the drive to specific criteria. there can be multiple changes as well, many hours imaging, etc etc.
You might get it cheaper elsewhere, but this is up to the DR company to quote.

probably a fair quote to sum up, along with fair advice about not "fixing" it.

Very small percentage of drives (especially the ones since 2012-2013) that have failed mechanically ever work as a new or refurbished drive. It is more or less a miracle when they do. Now, add possible media damage and it is virtually impossible. Too many factors to describe why, however it all starts with the design and manufacturing of drives with the goal of creating acceptably reliable devices at ever increasing capacity levels. Essentially, a "repaired failed drive" working again comes down to susceptibility to running into errors. Drives in such condition cannot be repaired. Only data recovery is possible.

As far as the storage medium being something you need to make available is somewhat odd, unless there is a shortage of drive where you are located. Though it is odd such storage is not already available in stock, they can just purchase it for you and add it to the bill.

Are you sure they aren't actually talking about you supplying donor drives for rebuilding the failed drive rather than the storage drive?

_________________
Hard Disk Drive (HDD), Solid State Drive (SSD, SATA, NVMe, etc), USB Flash Drive and RAID Data Recovery Specialist in Massachusetts

It's not a smart idea to make drive working and give it to customer to finish coping data. I tried couple times same thing for my friends and both time they brought drives to me back in worst condition. Very often drives could work with changed heads only some hours and usually drives has some read errors, so regular ways to copy data doesn't work. Both times friends copied some data, but not all and they brought me drives to finish copy some important data, but it was much more difficult because they tried to read data couple days and drives almost stopped working. In one case I cleaned heads three time to get last data and in other case I changed heads one more time to finish recovery. In the beginning, chances to get all data were high, but in the end I didn't recovery some data. So I would say - no more experiments with important data.
I could try to recover your data for $300 (all fees in). And no data - no money.

@HaQue @labtech

The reasoning you two have laid out behind the companies not repairing hard drive makes sense actually now that I see it.

My thought process of data recovery process went like this: Diagnosis -> Repair -> Recovery but it's not as straightforward as it appears.

From a business point of view it's a very safe strategy to simply recover data. The chapter's completely closed once the data is recovered and handed to the client. Fixing the drive could create a whole host of problems for the company like the uncertainty of the hard drive failing at any moment. You can't guarantee that to the client.
Now finding a hard drive repair/recovery company willing to do the repair work aswell could itself become a problem for me unless they are a hobbyist.


Upon further inquiry, I found they didn't include the cost of storage medium in the $850 quote. They are charging $130 for the medium, it's apparently an encrypted drive which is unnecessary for my needs. Rather, those $130 are better spent in sourcing 2 similar donor drives.

Which I have found floating on ebay for $50 a piece with firmware, SU code, 4 digit serial number, exactly the same. The drives are also made in the same factory. Don't know if it's from the same batch however the date of manufacture is different, just a month difference. overall it's encouraging news.
Also, I talked to the company about providing them a donor drive and they said if you could source a drive exactly the same then I can potentially save $320!

@drHDD Very interesting. Just reinforces that it's better to "recover" and not repair but isn't what you are talking about simply repair and not recovery? Recovery should be given the first priority anything after is secondary. I found the drive not being repaired in the chain of data recovery process a bit counterintuitive. If repair is messy option to desire then I'm ticking it off no problem.
About your offer, I will look into it but thanks anyway.

Update time.
I had a talk with the company today at their lab and took the drive back. First of all the diagnosis of head and controller isn't even a complete one. They never opened the drive.

Their response when I asked why they didn't opened the drive for a complete diagnosis was that they have some advanced tools to diagnose the drive without ever opening it. In their own exact words: "Opening the drive have a lot of risk that worsen the problem" For a class 10 certified company, they sure are extra careful.

Anyways, what broke the deal was they were not accepting the donor drive from my source which could have saved me about $320. The reason: the dates were not matching, everything else matched btw. The dates not being matched violated the "no data no charge" policy.
Their requested parameters for donor drive match was: 4 digits of SN, site code, FW, model no., date , DOM.

drHDD are you sure you will be able to handle the hard drive? It's a really tiny hard drive.

I had in my hands even more tiniest hard drives, so I am sure.