Hard drive clicking, anyway to fix?

madindehead

madindehead

madindehead

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My hard drive with all my movies and programs (files to install programs) is slowly dying I think.

Restarted my PC last night, and the drive wouldn't appear anymore. It spins up, clicks, and then spins down again.

Does anyone have any ideas to bring it back to life, even just to get some data from it?

Any ideas would be great!
 
You could try a backup software such as Acronis True Image which can create a bootable CD (i.e. don't need to get into Windows) then you can try backup/clone the drive. Alternatively you could try use some of the tools found on the free but excellent Ultimate Boot CD.

But if clicking, etc it sounds dire :(

Also, if still under warranty (some drives come with 5-years) then you could have it replaced by the manufacturer.
 
I think I know what it is now. It's a Seagate 7200.11 drive, that apparently can just brick themselves. Last time I ever let anyone buy me an external drive that isn't WD. Total piece of **** this Seagate.

Problem is, the BIOS isn't picking it up. So really not sure what to do :( I'm very angry and annoyed by this :(
 
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I'd back-up things that are important just in case while the drive still works.

I had couple Maxtor (now part of Seagate) HDD there were clicking, and then died soon after in the pass.

One reason I don't buy Seagate HDD is because I had 5 Maxtor HDD died on me over the pass 10 years...
 
I think it's already locked itself. Not quite dead yet, but I can't access data. From a quick read around, it seems like it was a common problem with these drives. They sound pretty ****
 
some of the Barracuda 7200.11's needed a firmware update, use the link below and enter your serial number in to see if it's one of them that needs it. When you update the firmware you won't lose the data on it.


http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931



I would try that 1st then run a full check in windows on the drive and see if the clicking stops, if not get a 2nd drive and backup onto that first then do a low level format on the bad drive. If all that fails send it for RMA means it's failed.. Seagate make great drives but there always will be the odd one that dies from bad components.


If while trying to update the firmware it can't detect the drive, remove all drives that are connected to the motherboard and then try again.. again if that fails move the drive to a different SATA port on the motherboard and keep trying it will finally see it, I have heard of this fault before and had to fix such a drive this way ;).. you may find you need to move the drive to another PC with a different motherboard too to do the firmware flash.. Depends on your motherboard.. Also a good time to update your motherboards BIOS if you have not done that in a while, it may help with detecting the drive.

This only applies to external drives.

If the drive is an external drive and you are using E-Sata and the drive still won't detect for firmware flashing, try plugging the drive on the sata connectors on the inside of the motherboard.


If you are using the USB and have no E-Sata and the drive still won't detect for firmware flashing, you may need to remove the drive from it's case and plug in a sata cable to it and again connect it to the sata on the motherboard.
 
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madindehead said:
Last time I ever let anyone buy me an external drive that isn't WD
Click to expand...
Just to clarify its an external drive, right? You could, if you don't mind voiding your warranty extract the drive from the casing & plug it in direct into a desktop PC (motherboard SATA & PSU power) or into another external enclosure.

Hard disk failure can affect any make hard drive & found this to be more true especially when used in an external enclosure. In my case, I've had several WD's fail in the last couple of months. Thankfully not drastically i.e. gave warning = backed up everything plus all replaced under warranty.
 
I pulled the drive out of the enclosure a long time ago. As for updating the firmware, the drive isn't recognised by the BIOS or PC anymore. Will try a BIOS update, and then run the drive on it's own and see if it picks up. Thanks for the ideas guys.
 
yeah i knocked over my maxtor external drive a while ago. It still works it just clicks a bit. But after that i won't trust any data on there. Just in case.
 
No joy yet with it being the only drive plugged in. Even if if will detect it, I won't be able to flash it. So annoyed by this, wish I had a backup of all that stuff now. What's most annoying is, it just died after I brought the computer out of sleep. Most annoyed!
 
The clicking is probably the Reading head hiting the platter; pretty fatal for a HDD. What you can try is to put the HDD in a sealed plastic bag, with a sachet of silica gel, and put the whole lot in a freezer for a day. Remove the HDD and quickly attach it to your PC. The thermal contraction may be enough to move the head off the platter and you may be able to extract the critical data. Note: this is not a permanent fix and may well not work..
 
I don't think the freezer method will work for this drive. See, it's probably locked itself, as it doesn't even show up in the BIOS. Common problem with that drive. So going to do that terminal hack, then update the firmware. Firmware update should stop it locking.

If that doesn't work, then I will attempt the freezer method :p
 
Hopefully that won't be me :p Need to try and grab some RS232 pins from uni if I can, makes things a bit cheaper/easier. And that Torx screwdriver.
 
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