Dead 150GB Raptor

[Heofz]

This is extremely annoying. The same day I installed a new 1TB drive bought from OcUK, my 150GB raptor has now failed What's more annoying is that out of the 9 Western Digital drives I have, the one that failed had to be the one containing my vista install and documents

Firstly the drive failed to boot windows with a blue screen, making the odd clicking noise here and there, and now when powering up it clicks loudly 10 times then powers down again. This happens during POST, and whenever I want to access the drive.

My last backup was October 2007, and the most annoying thing is that I was going to do a backup 2 weeks ago but didn't get round to it :/

Strangely enough, I've had 3 other Western Digital drives go faulty on me in the last 2 months, but in each case I could still access the drive normally and retrive 99% of the data. (What happened: 1TB drive had to be RMA'd twice, first was data errors and the replacement had a SMART failure).

About 2 months ago I purchased a UPS, and I am now wondering if by some odd chance that this may have something to do with it, because I have had these drives for a loooong time and it is extremely odd how all of a sudden my drives start dying at once.

Is there any way I can bring this drive back to life? I don't mind doing an RMA, but I would very much like to recover the data from it first

 

[Diggsy]

The only chance you have IMO is to try the freezer trick. It has very limited success mind you, but worth a shot.

The loud clicking you describe sounds like the arm bouncing off the platter, a typical sound heard when the drive has met it's maker.

Google HDD Freezer Trick. It basically involves placing it in a freezer bag, then whacking it in the freezer for 30 mins and placing it back in the PC. If you are lucky enough, it will work and you can get the data off it. If not, nothing lost really, at least you tried.

 

[Heofz]

Yeah will try that method as a last resort but am not too hopeful as it has never worked in the past with other drives.

The strange thing is that I hear that click noise happen once every time the drive powers up (my other raptor which is still 100% perfect does this), it is a very distinct snap noise rather than a click, if you know what I mean, does this make any difference? :/

 

[Diggsy]

Hmmm, that sounds strange. Normally when the drive goes, you will hear a constant clicking, almost like the ticking of a clock, only a LOT louder.

The only thing I can think might be causing that one snap is that the arm is moving onto the platter, then straight back into park, rather than reading from the disk.

Although like I said, normally when this happens you hear a constant clicking as the arm will keep moving back onto the platter trying to read the data.

Out of interest, does the bios recognise the disk?

 

[Heofz]

At one point it did, but not anymore. The bios kind of halts while the disk attempts to turn on then once it gives up the bios carries on while ignoring it.

 

[Diggsy]

Well then, in that case, it would seem the freezer trick is your only hope. Although before you do that, it might be an idea to try it in another system, just in case it picks it up, even for long enough to get the data off it.