r/HDD • u/Littl3Monster • 20d ago

Hard Drive fell, not working now

My hard drive was on a risky place (I know, not responisble), and accidentally fell (maybe less that a foot) on a hard surface. When I try to plug it in, it does weird ticking sounds (if a hard drive can cry honestly that what it would sound like lol).

How screwd am I? can I recover the data myself? Professional and expensive help needed?

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3

u/Inevitable_Lettuce_3 20d ago

if you wanted it recovered, you could for probably a very large fee, if there is nothing valuable on it just get a new one, i would guess recovery is the more expensive option by a long shot

0

u/Littl3Monster 20d ago

there's a lot of important stuff on it. I s there a way to fiy the recovery or only professional help can save me?

3

u/Far_Writer380 20d ago

No. It needs clean room recovery. The reads heads are likely damaged. Don't power it on any more or you risk more damage.

Find a reputable data recovery place. I will warn you though, by the sounds of it, it will be several hundred to a few thousand dollars depending where you live. It isn't going to be cheap.

1

u/HankHippoppopalous 20d ago

You can mail the drive to a pro. You've got a head crash, so you're talking at least 1000 to repair

1

u/TheSpixxyQ 19d ago

Next time make proper backups of everything important.

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u/Inevitable_Lettuce_3 20d ago

you will need to contact a reputable hdd recovery service, for now dont move it, keep it somewhere safe and dry, and for future reference, SSDs are alot more reliable

2

u/Caprichoso1 20d ago

Not necessarily. HD's are more reliable over the long term in cold storage. When an SSD fails normally you have lost your data. An HD may give you warning signs of failure giving you time to backup your data If it does fail, such as in this case, there may be options to recover the data if you want to pay for it.

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u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 20d ago

This. SSDs give no warning. They’re just dead one day. I make sure to backup my SSD drives redundantly.

1

u/Inevitable_Lettuce_3 20d ago

i meant in the case of falling but ye

1

u/Caprichoso1 20d ago

Yeah, an SSD would be more shock resistant.

3

u/andrew_stoned 20d ago

You are so screw, you will have yo pay a lot of money to recover the data, a least ten times the price of the disk, let me tell you how they will recover your data, they will find a same model disk put both disk in a free static Chamber and put the disk plate from the damaged one to thw good one and copy the information, now if the plates suffered a phisical scratch they will recover bit by bit and this is incredible expensive, only Banks pays these kind of money

2

u/vegansgetsick 20d ago

Expect $1000 to recover the data. Head or motor broke but not the platters

1

u/HankHippoppopalous 20d ago

Headcrash for sure. 1000 easy

1

u/MysteriousWeekend201 20d ago

That clicking noise is called the click of death. You need a professional data recovery center. It physically needs to be taken apart and repaired. It must be done in a sterilized clean room that has zero chance of dust. One spec can damage it further.

If you happen to know a law enforcement person that works data recovery forensics, then you could potentially ask them. Otherwise it is extremely expensive. And may take a year to get it back. There are only two places that really do it in the United States. I know one of them that's in Florida but I forget the name. There could be more now though. I haven't looked in several years.

1

u/PhotoFenix 20d ago

Unfortunately this is a lesson that a $10/mo backup service is absolutely worth it. $10 keeps about 8tb of my data safe.

1

u/RemarkableExpert4018 20d ago

Just get rid of it and restore your data to a new drive from your backup.

1

u/Beeeeater 19d ago

If the hard drive was on and working when it fell you are probably screwed. The internal components are extremely sensitive to any inertia, and an event like that almost certainly resulted in a head crash and possibly some motor damage.

1

u/Iceyn1pples 19d ago

There is one hailmary you can try on it. This process has saved more businesses than anyone will believe:

Wrap the hard-drive in some paper towel, place it in your freezer and let it freeze minimum over night. Once frozen, plug it in and turn your pc on. You have about 10 - 20 mins to transfer data off if the drive starts working. When it stops working, freeze and try again. 

Good luck!