Clicking, dying hard drive - tricks to recover data?

I have a spare laptop hdd which was in the modular bay. It's a 40gb and I was using it there until I was going to use it as a system drive for a new laptop.

Anyway, suffice it to say it suddenly quit while I was away (I came back and drive e: was not there), and trying to reboot resulted in clicking which rapidly grew louder. By the time I was booted up I couldn't see the drive. Since I had a 500+mb page file on that drive, it's possible the attempt to access it was the death nail of the drive.

Now, it is dying, maybe dead. I get a "click..cl.....CLICK! click..cl.....CLICK!" sound when power is applied and the system won't recognize it, either in the modular bay or as the main drive.

Soooooooo...

Any tricks to get the data off? I only need a few minutes to get what I really want. It's nothing critical but there were some files I'd sure like to get back if I could.

Any ideas other than freezing the drive, tapping the drive, shaking the drive or the like? I've lightly tapped it and lightly shaken it but I've not gotten "last ditch" enough to slam it down on the desk yet.

I'm open to ideas... or links to such "tricks" on websites or old threads would be great.

 

It sounds to me like you have researched this and have a pretty good handle on your options. As a precaution, just don't squeeze it. Laptop drives are quite rugged and will take a significant G-Force impact but simply compressing it by holding it wrong (top and bottom) will kill it instantly. I've had success before by freezing drives and would certainly encourage it but bag it up good before you freeze it and when you pull it out, don't waste any time getting it into your machine and trying to access it.

Good Luck.

 

So squeezing a laptop drive kills it, eh? Good to know, in general.

I already tried freezing the drive. At first, it seemed nothing happened and I didn't get recognition. Yet once it warmed up it clicked again.

Probably I need to get a 2.5" to 3.5" adaptor. I have a USB adaptor with both 2.5" and 3.5" connections BUT - the 2.5" side is pretty useless except for the rare drive which uses less than 500ma. At least if I got a laptop drive adaptor, I can use the external power source on it.

That way - I can have the computer already booted when I take it out of the freezer, apply power and connect it. Maybe I can get a couple minutes. That would be enough.

 

I hope you aren't serious. This is not hot swappable. You don't want to do this.

Yes, by all means, get a 40 to 44 pin adapter and run the drive off of a regular IDE controller and a regular molex connector. Connect the drive with the computer powered off and then boot up. I'd also suggest you freeze this thing for at least 8-10 hours and wrap it in two sealed ziplock freezer bags.

I had assumed you were initially running this from an IDE header because you said it was installed in a modular bay. Shame on me for that assumption.

 

LOL... let me clarify a little.

I have a laptop with a main hdd in the main hdd bay. I also have a "second hard drive module" into which I can put a second laptop hard drive and insert it into the laptop's modular bay, just like I would a cd or floppy drive.

It's second drive, in the modular bay, which failed.

I ALSO have an IDE-USB adaptor I can use for hooking up IDE drives externally via USB. It has a separate power supply for 3.5" drives but on the 2.5" side it gets power from the USB port - no more than 500ma.

My thought is to get a 2.5" >> 3.5" adaptor and hook that up to the PS and the 3.5" side of the USB-IDE adaptor.

Then... I boot up the laptop and have it ready. I pull the dying drive out of the freezer, plug it into the power and the IDE-USB adaptor.... and cross my fingers and toes.

If you think there's a better plan, I'm all ears, but this is the current plan of action in lieu of any better ideas.....

 

Thanks for the clarification. Your plan sounds like a good one. The 2.5 >> 3.5 adapter you reference is one and the same as a 40 to 44 pin adapter.

 

Dying Hard Drive & Recovering Data

Hi. Whenever I have had a hard drive about to die or already stone dead I have always managed to recover all my data by using a program called GetDataBack. It comes in various "packages" i.e. FAT, NTFS. Works like a charm. My son also uses it and swears by it. here's the link: http://www.runtime.org/. Good Luck

 

I beg to differ

GetDataBack is the only software I know that even if Windows can't see the hard drive when you run GetDataBack it WILL see it, believe me I have had dead Hard Drives that are totally invisible but instead of throwing them away I have run GetDataBack it has seen it and allowed me to recover me data. I have done this many times. It works whether you can see it or not.

 

There are many reasons why a hard drive may not be visible or accessible. GetDataBack is an excellent piece of software and can see a drive and recover date in many circumstances, but it can't get round terminal faults in the mechanical or electronic components.

Have you tried the hard drive manufacture's own diagnosic utility from a boot CD? Also try the drive in another machine if you can.