External HDD wants to format, but I need my data

[Leomarg02]

I woke up this morning and to my discomfort my external lacie HDD was screwing with me. I tried opening it in my computer and it states that it wants to format my drive. The drive shows up as a RAW drive in properties and I'm seriously can't lose these files. I tried two recovery programs and both failed.They showed files that were deleted on the drive, not the current ones I didn't trash. While that ran I heard the infamous "clickity click" of a hdd that might die on me. PLEASE GOD Forsaken help me get this drive going so I can at least back it up somehow.

 

[amdskip]

If you are hearing the clicking noises and recovery software is not seeing the files, that is a good sign that your hard drive has a mechanical failure. The only way to get your files back is professional recovery which may costs $1000 or more.

Your only hope may be the freezer trick.

 

[Leomarg02]

Those that freezer trick actually work?

 

[amdskip]

Sometimes, I tried it the other day but the drive was too far gone.

 

[RebateMonger]

A while back, I posted about these free videos, available on bittorent and on youtube.com. This guy has a good technical discussion about hard drive failure, recovery, and rebuilding drives.

 

[Laputa]

Could be a corrupt firmware (on the board, the P-List, or the G-List), possible bad read head, possible a few head crash spots, or something else. I would not try the freezer method on your drive since your drive still IDs and is making clicking sounds. The freezer will only work in two scenario. 1 - The motor is not spinning up properly after it heats up or 2 - the board is not supplying the motor the proper voltage after the board heats up. These two scenarios applies only if you know for sure there's no existing surface damage(s). Since your drive now starts clicking, I would recommend stop trying before it gets worse. Your drive is spinning at about 54MPH for a 5400RPM drive and it will only take 1-2 second to destroy it. This situation is very similar to a rock hitting the windshield at full speed and you know what happens next. YHPM!