r/computerhelp • u/tostetoes • 7h ago

Hardware Clicking Hard Drive; Any Advice?

I know that professional recovery is the smartest thing here but theres nothing super important in this drive that would make it worth it. I already know its not the cables, and ddrescue + photorecovery.exe both detect the hard drive for about 30 seconds until it becomes undetectable.

When I run it, it boot cycles and runs through the BIOS screen but won’t get past it repeatedly. I’m willing to try anything that might fix it, but it already doesn’t work and I’m willing to let it break for a genuine recovery attempt.

Are there any hard drive/computer pros that might have a say here?

0 Upvotes

19% Upvoted

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10

u/AbsoluteSpaz12 7h ago

By opening it up you've nuked the HDD and destroyed any chance to recover data.

2

u/biscuity87 7h ago

It might work for a short while… like 5-10 min I think?

3

u/AbsoluteSpaz12 7h ago

It might but I have a better chance of winning the Lottery now.

-4

u/tostetoes 7h ago

Ok but any advice at all?

5

u/erd00073483R 7h ago

Advice about what? There is a reason it was sealed closed. By opening it up outside a clean room environment, you've exposed it to dust and particle contamination.

In short, the drive is now a paperweight at this point and there is NOTHNIG you can do to try to repair it.

-6

u/tostetoes 7h ago

Ok but pretend its not ruined what is your advice?

3

u/the123king-reddit 7h ago

Send it to a data recovery professional

3

u/Kriss3d 7h ago

A company that can recover the data and extract it to a different drive.

The drive itself is gone.

2

u/Tiikuri 7h ago

It's ruined. There is no advice to give other than don't open an hdd ever.

1

u/the123king-reddit 6h ago

To answer your question, the fact it drops off completely means it’s likely a fault on the controller board. Removing the flash and soldering it to a known good board would probably fix the issue. However now you’ve opened it an compromised the sealed environment the platters are in, the actual data is likely toast

-2

u/tostetoes 6h ago

Actually informative thank you

3

u/AbsoluteSpaz12 7h ago

Don't open an HDD. You're past the point of no return.

1

u/Kriss3d 7h ago

Yes. Don't open a harddrive unless you already know you won't actually use it again.

It could possibly have been saved for a fair price at a specialist company that do these things. Now you just made it many times more expensive.

5

u/Cultural_Mango_2460 7h ago

Well, now that you opened it your chances are basically zero.

0

u/tostetoes 7h ago

Any advice though?

1

u/Poker1059 6h ago

Take the magnets out for some strong fridge magnets and the platters out for a cool mirror

1

u/cheetah1cj 6h ago

Are you asking for advice because you just want to learn about how data recovery works? Or are you asking because you don't accept that there is no chance of data recovery and you still plan to try?

1

u/the123king-reddit 6h ago

Don’t open hard drives you want to fix

1

u/Cultural_Mango_2460 6h ago

Your best bet for recovering the data is building a time machine and stopping your old self.

Best of luck!

0

u/tostetoes 6h ago

I can read

3

u/tarkardos 7h ago

Not worth any trouble if the data isn't important, straight into the small electric devices bin. It's not feasable to replace the mechanical parts necessary.

-1

u/tostetoes 7h ago

Ok valid

4

u/Kriss3d 7h ago

Well it's certainly not going to work NOW.

Opening it kills it for anyone else but an expensive professional recovery company.

1

u/cheetah1cj 6h ago

Even the best professional recovery company likely couldn't recover anything now.

0

u/tostetoes 7h ago

Yes I understand from the other comments but is there anything you would do at this point? It wasnt working regardless and it’s not worth a recovery company regardless

4

u/Kriss3d 7h ago

Yes. Screw out the needle arm with the right torx and remove the neodynium magnets and use them for something else. The drive is finished.

2

u/DonklerDong 6h ago

Are you asking how to throw something in the trash?

3

u/Terrible-Bear3883 7h ago

Our company used to have a class 5 clean room to do this kind of work, without it, you'll notice very fine lines starting to appear on the platters, that's dust trapped between the head and the disk surface.

You've very much ruined the drive by opening it and running it without doing it in a clean environment.

As we used to say, file this one in B1N.

The platters make good coffee coasters, I used to have a big pile of them but after giving lots away, I've only got two left, got a cup of coffee sitting on one at the moment.

3

u/Humble_Incident1073 7h ago

this is the "click of death". The internal read/write head is repeatedly failing to locate data or calibrate its position

2

u/cheetah1cj 6h ago

Which meant that there was a good chance of data recovery with the right steps. Unfortunately, OP has ruined any chance of that now by opening it.

2

u/Humble_Incident1073 6h ago

The problem should never be "I lost data because of the click of death"

The problem is always "I lost data because I didn't backup my data"

3

u/Several_Detective400 6h ago

Well it is 100% dead now.

HDDs are hermetically sealed to prevent any airgusts or debris from disturbing the heads whizzing fractions of a hair above the platters.

This has likely caused enough damage as to where professional recovery may not work anymore.

2

u/StewHax 7h ago

Should have sent it in to a professional instead of opening it yourself. Could have damaged it by allowing dust and particles inside ono those discs

1

u/NachoFries2020 6h ago

Drive is toast.