Hard Drive Problems

[Nathanial K'cansce]

I wanna say maybe five days ago while I was using my computer, about half of my programs ceased to function properly and the 'puter started to lag horribly. Upon reboot, my 250 gig hard drive began making "click-whir-click-whir-clickpeeeyoooah" sound during the detection stage (had it hooked up to an IDE card so it would be recognizable to my OS) and it said that it could not be installed because the drive wasn't found, or something like that. *Installed might be the wrong term, the message is only displayed for a second.*

So it conitues the start up proccess just fine, and once everything settles down, I get messages saying that certain programs I have cannot run/start because their filename had been changed or they had been moved. So I check My Computer and see that it can no longer see my G:, H:, and I: drives (partitions of my 250 gig-er).

I've tried compressed air to clean out the dust inside my case, especially focusing around my defuct drive. I've tried to run the diagnostic check that came with the hard drive (on a 3.5 floppy), but the one thing I needed to run would not run. I went to western digital's site and downloaded a more up-to-date diagnostics check - which wouldn't even run due to not having the proper command or something like that. I've also tried playing around with the power cables connecting it to the IDE card.

Yet I am still getting that clicking sound. One of my friends said that it sounds like the click of death, meaning that the hard drive is either on its way out, or already dead.

So basically, is there anything that I haven't done that I could to save it? Or is it basically dead?

And if it is dead, is there anyway I could, say, transfer what I had on the hard drive to another one before I send it away? *has warranty*

[Katina Van-Derveld]

Unfortunately, there's usually not much that can be done with dead harddrives. I've had a LOT of experience in this area. There are several groups who will do data recovery, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg (I'm talking $3,000+).

If you know somewhere that'll do repairs on something so delicate, you may want to ask them for an estimate. Maybe you're lucky and it's just a drive motor.

You said it's a Western Digital? Shame, because those are normally very good drives.

Edit: If it's really important, there's a poster on SA who will do data recovery for $150-$400 dollars. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=895208

[Nathanial K'cansce]

My friend and I have found some data recovery techniques, and if I need to pay, I'd rather pay a friend in the business than some random stranger. There's actually still a few of my friends I need to talk to about this... hmmm *ponders*

Western Digital are one of the top two. Which also makes me ponder if it could be a virus that got in there.:huh

[Katina Van-Derveld]

Well, there are several programs you can use to recover lost data, but that usually doesn't cover "drives making funny noises". If the drive can't access certain areas, then no program is going to be able to get to what's stored there.

Still, in case you need it at some point: I've used Ontrack EasyRecovery with a decent amount of success. http://www.ontrack.com/easyrecoveryprofessional/, but like I said: It's for data lost to things like a reformat, not for drive failures. It may be useful if you can get the drive working and find data missing.

I realize that paying a stranger for something delicate like this may be unappealing, but he has done lots of jobs for people, as you can see from the thread. If you're going to have a friend open up the drive, realize that it's not something a hobbyist can usually do; He'll need a "clean" environment and lots of know-how. Personally, this is something I'd trust to a professional. If your friend is a data recovery professional, then by all means.

I've had large harddrives cease functioning on me and I've looked into what can be done for a very long time. Every time, I've just come to the conclusion that it's better to forget about it and just buy a new drive. I've had lots of important data lost this way, but none of it was $3,000 important.

[Nathanial K'cansce]

If it's any consolation, my system BIOS still detects the drive.

And as for friends: One is a hobbiest, who actually knows what he's doing (has helped me numerous times and is currently helping me now). Two more are getting degrees in computer related fields, and have put together/troublshot many a copmputer problem in their times and both of whom have helped me with the internal workings of my computer and never failed. The last is co-owner of a computer store - selling parts, making computers, and fixing problems that might go wrong.

I'll check out that ontrack link after work. Thanks :)

[Figrin D'an]

If you're lucky, it'll just be the motor on the drive, which can be replaced. Otherwise, hope that you can pull off anything critical with recovery software before it really goes to the big hardware dump in the sky, and maybe see if it's still under warranty to get a replacement.