How screwed am I?

[TechBoyJK]

I have a 500GB USB Western Digital Drive that ran fine for a few years.

It's out of warranty. Definately now because I broke the internal SATA drive out of its case.

I noticed that the drive wasn't showing up in "my computer" but it was powered on.

Upon resetting it, I noticed 3 clicks, a pause, 3 clicks, then the drive powering down.

After doing some reading, I read that it could be a failure on teh USB converter, the voltage regulator, being burned out so the drive wasnt getting enough power to turn on.

So I cracked open the case and pulled out the drive, and hooked it up like a regular sata drive.

No luck.

What are the chances I can pay WD to recover the data? I'm sure it's just a failed head or something. Anybody dealt with WD before on stuff like this?

Fortunately, I have alot of it backed up, so I'm not in a hurry to get it all recovered. I might just put it in a shoebox and wait till I have the extra cash.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
What are the chances I can pay WD to recover the data?

Your chances of paying WD or a 3rd party recovery company to retrieve your data is about 99.9%.
The cost however is very prohibitive.

Option 1. If the HD shows up in your BIOS, is to purchase and run SpinRite.
Option 2. Contact Drive Savers for an estimate on recovering your data... 1-800-440-1904
Option 3. Buy another WD HD of the same model as yours. Swap the platters from yours over to the new drive.

 

[MadAmos]

You could also try Dave I have had him recover a couple drives and he was a lot!! less than Drivesavers and the other quotes I got at the time.

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK
Upon resetting it, I noticed 3 clicks, a pause, 3 clicks, then the drive powering down.
.

There is no program that will help with that problem. It is a hardware issue.

Disaster recovery is your only hope, unless you do option 3 as Blain pointed out.
Good luck finding the exact same model/firmware version of the drive though, it is *very* difficult.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: Blain
Option 3. Buy another WD HD of the same model as yours. Swap the platters from yours over to the new drive.

Actually, that video shows how to swap heads, which is a lot easier than swapping platters. Multiple platters must be kept in absolute alignment with each other or the drive is trashed. This is done using a special fixture to hold them in alignment while moving them all at one time.

 

[Denithor]

Before you do anything else, including SpinRite, I suggest you try the freezer trick.

Put the drive in a ziplock bag in the freezer overnight. Plug in a long cable & power cable and put back in the freezer (cables coming out with the door shut over them). Connect the cables to a laptop, boot up and try to recover your data.

When you have mechanical problems (ie clicking noises) this method works about the best of anything I've seen and will often allow you long enough to grab the data off the drive.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: Blain
Option 3. Buy another WD HD of the same model as yours. Swap the platters from yours over to the new drive.

Actually, that video shows how to swap heads, which is a lot easier than swapping platters. Multiple platters must be kept in absolute alignment with each other or the drive is trashed. This is done using a special fixture to hold them in alignment while moving them all at one time.

Like this one?

 

[taltamir]

just send it to professional data recovery. it costs just under 300$.
Western digital are not the people to go to do that.
google "hard drive recovery"