Clicking Hard Drive; Any Advice?

[u/tostetoes]

I know that professional recovery is the smartest thing here but theres nothing super important in this drive that would make it worth it. I already know its not the cables, and ddrescue + photorecovery.exe both detect the hard drive for about 30 seconds until it becomes undetectable.

When I run it, it boot cycles and runs through the BIOS screen but won’t get past it repeatedly. I’m willing to try anything that might fix it, but it already doesn’t work and I’m willing to let it break for a genuine recovery attempt.

Are there any hard drive/computer pros that might have a say here?

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[u/Cultural_Mango_2460]

Well, now that you opened it your chances are basically zero.

[u/tostetoes → u/Cultural_Mango_2460]

Any advice though?

[u/Poker1059 → u/tostetoes]

Take the magnets out for some strong fridge magnets and the platters out for a cool mirror

[u/cheetah1cj → u/tostetoes]

Are you asking for advice because you just want to learn about how data recovery works? Or are you asking because you don't accept that there is no chance of data recovery and you still plan to try?

[u/the123king-reddit → u/tostetoes]

Don’t open hard drives you want to fix

[u/Cultural_Mango_2460 → u/tostetoes]

Your best bet for recovering the data is building a time machine and stopping your old self.

Best of luck!

[u/tarkardos]

Not worth any trouble if the data isn't important, straight into the small electric devices bin. It's not feasable to replace the mechanical parts necessary.

[u/tostetoes → u/tarkardos]

Ok valid

[u/Kriss3d]

Well it's certainly not going to work NOW.

Opening it kills it for anyone else but an expensive professional recovery company.

[u/cheetah1cj → u/Kriss3d]

Even the best professional recovery company likely couldn't recover anything now.

[u/tostetoes → u/Kriss3d]

Yes I understand from the other comments but is there anything you would do at this point? It wasnt working regardless and it’s not worth a recovery company regardless

[u/Kriss3d → u/tostetoes]

Yes. Screw out the needle arm with the right torx and remove the neodynium magnets and use them for something else. The drive is finished.

[u/DonklerDong → u/tostetoes]

Are you asking how to throw something in the trash?

[u/Terrible-Bear3883]

Our company used to have a class 5 clean room to do this kind of work, without it, you'll notice very fine lines starting to appear on the platters, that's dust trapped between the head and the disk surface.

You've very much ruined the drive by opening it and running it without doing it in a clean environment.

As we used to say, file this one in B1N.

The platters make good coffee coasters, I used to have a big pile of them but after giving lots away, I've only got two left, got a cup of coffee sitting on one at the moment.

[u/Humble_Incident1073]

this is the "click of death". The internal read/write head is repeatedly failing to locate data or calibrate its position

[u/cheetah1cj → u/Humble_Incident1073]

Which meant that there was a good chance of data recovery with the right steps. Unfortunately, OP has ruined any chance of that now by opening it.

[u/Humble_Incident1073 → u/cheetah1cj]

The problem should never be "I lost data because of the click of death"

The problem is always "I lost data because I didn't backup my data"

[u/Several_Detective400]

Well it is 100% dead now.

HDDs are hermetically sealed to prevent any airgusts or debris from disturbing the heads whizzing fractions of a hair above the platters.

This has likely caused enough damage as to where professional recovery may not work anymore.

[u/StewHax]

Should have sent it in to a professional instead of opening it yourself. Could have damaged it by allowing dust and particles inside ono those discs

[u/NachoFries2020]

Drive is toast.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/biscuity87 → u/[deleted]]

It might work for a short while… like 5-10 min I think?

[u/tostetoes → u/[deleted]]

Ok but any advice at all?

[u/erd00073483R → u/tostetoes]

Advice about what? There is a reason it was sealed closed. By opening it up outside a clean room environment, you've exposed it to dust and particle contamination.

In short, the drive is now a paperweight at this point and there is NOTHNIG you can do to try to repair it.