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hard drive clicking...

G

gentobu

Golden Member
Here's what happed. I was in internet explorer and I clicked a link on a website, then IE locked up and a few seconds later my system rebooted. Well almost. It got to the windows 2k boot screen (the text one) then it just froze for a little while then I got an error. Anyway this happed about three times, then it wouldnt even get to the boot screen. It would just say NON SYSTEM DISK etc. A few reboots later and the system wouldnt even recognize the hard drive. And now I hear this clicking sound. Sounds kinda like a clock (tic toc) then it would stop for a little while then start again. I removed the data cable from the drive and the clicking stopped. So now im *pretty sure* that my drive is toast, and im not sure if I kept the receipt for it (if I did then it should still be under warranty). Anyway my question is (if i cant get this thing RMA'd) what should I do with it. I have heard of people freezing dying hard disks and then recovering data off them, but im not sure if its true or not. If anyone has any other data recovery solution (or if my diagnosis of the drive is wrong) please tell me! thanks in advance.
 
If you don't have a recent backup of important data on this HD, and the HD is not accessible at all (not even when booting the PC with a bootdisk), your only solution is the bring the HD to a data-recovery center, which will cost you quite some money. Otherwise, if the HD is still accessible, there are some programs (mostly shareware) which can recover data from the HD and copy it to another HD in the system or other storage medium.

Good luck.
 

Welcome to the "Click of death" - backup any data that you still have & prepare to RMA that drive (if you still have warranty on it).
 
Could you post a wave file of this so called "clicking noise" ?

Ive had several HDs die and have heard a specific sound everytime. It was more like a "knock, knock, knock".
 
if there is clicking than that means the reader is not getting around inside and data cannot be seen so your computer thinks there is no hard disk. This is usually caused by small changes in the geometry of the components inside the drive. If the info on you disk is important and you dont want to pay a data recovery company to get it then you might want to try some things i have done to recover info from disk (Warning: some of these things will completly kill your drive so think about it carefully and DONT blame me for anything):

1) take the drive out and tap all edges to loosen things up (this helps loosen any stuck parts)

or

2)pop the drive in the freezer for a couple of hours (wrapped in plastic) and pop it in being very careful not to let too much condensation collect. (this makes the metal parts inside contract and allows some movement)

these techniques, especially the latter, are very extreme and you may only have 10 to 15 minutes to recover data. You should be on a network or have another drive in your computer and have your old drive set to slave. I have enclose a link for you to check out some other methods. Good luck and be careful. (I wont give you a lecture about backing things up)

www.internetvalue.com/onsite/200ways.htm
 
thanks for the tips guys! Ok I was just wondering if the tech guys at the HDD manufacturer would know that I froze the drive if I did it. I have backups of all the vital stuff, but there are still some things that I would like to have back! Anyway Im going to RMA no matter what so I was just wondering if they can tell that the drive has been frozen.
thanks in advance.
 
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