Need Reference: Physical Data Recovery (Click of Death)

[xerocool]

Hi all, I have a 200GB old (~6years) WD hard drive that suddenly got that "click of death". I *think* the problem is that head can no longer calibrate - I've tried freezing it and giving it a good knock but neither worked.

I have no idea what's on the drive as I found it in a box of other drives, but there's a good chance it's family photos and videos, so I'd like to at least try and recover the data partly out of curiosity and partly b/c it's probably something important; however, given the gamble (could be my old NES ROM's!) I don't want to spend too much money on it.

Does anyone know of a good place where I can get this done? Doesn't have to be a B&M by me (San Diego) - I just want something cheap and reliable and secure! (photos of the misses? >.>)

I found this one place which says that the Click-Of-Death is alot of times the circuit board on the outside, and they only charge $199 for that, and have a cap of $499 for the invasive recovery (clean room and such): http://www.nationwidedatarecovery.com

I was thinking about going with them, but would like to hear any references/suggestions from my Anandtech buddies

Cheers!

 

[Laputa]

PM ya!

 

[Homerboy]

Hi all, I have a 200GB old (~6years) WD hard drive that suddenly got that "click of death". I *think* the problem is that head can no longer calibrate - I've tried freezing it and giving it a good knock but neither worked.

I have no idea what's on the drive as I found it in a box of other drives, but there's a good chance it's family photos and videos, so I'd like to at least try and recover the data partly out of curiosity and partly b/c it's probably something important; however, given the gamble (could be my old NES ROM's!) I don't want to spend too much money on it.

Does anyone know of a good place where I can get this done? Doesn't have to be a B&M by me (San Diego) - I just want something cheap and reliable and secure! (photos of the misses? >.>)

I found this one place which says that the Click-Of-Death is alot of times the circuit board on the outside, and they only charge $199 for that, and have a cap of $499 for the invasive recovery (clean room and such): http://www.nationwidedatarecovery.com

I was thinking about going with them, but would like to hear any references/suggestions from my Anandtech buddies

Cheers!

SOMETIMES the click of death can be a circuit board. That is true. That being said, one thing you can do, befire shipping off for $200 repair, is to find an EXACTLY model match to your HDD (look on ebay) and try to swap out the circuit board on your own (4 screws and a small cable in most cases). It is worth the inexpensive shot I'd say.

Best of lucK!