Attempting to Recover data off a Clicking Hard Drive

[Jake snake]

A little information first. Yesterday when I tried to run my VPN an error popped up that there was a corrupt file and I needed to run check disk. After this when my computer re-booted many of my programs wouldn't run. After I re-booted again nothing. My hard drive wouldn't read at all. I was able to install Windows 7 x64 on another hard drive and then I tried to get the hard drive to read. At first it read for about a minute or two then it just vanished from my computer, disk manager and even bios (I will also say when it did read the drive, the size was in correct) and would only appear after a full shut down not a restart. After many tries I finally got it to pull up the drive in it's entirety for a brief moment. But then the whole system froze. I re-booted my computer and then the clicking started. and when ever I try to boot with it plugged in the system won't get past starting windows. If I plug it in after startup it gets stuck as well. Is there any course of action that I can take without damaging the drive further or should I seek professional help?

 

[samuria]

Welcome to the forum. It depends how valuable the data is profession help is the best bet but it can cost a fortune if the drive has to stripped in a clean room. I would guess the drive fault is heat related so when its cold its ok the old trick is to put it in a sealed bag in a frezzer then conect and get the data quick

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Welcome to the forum. It depends how valuable the data is profession help is the best bet but it can cost a fortune if the drive has to stripped in a clean room. I would guess the drive fault is heat related so when its cold its ok the old trick is to put it in a sealed bag in a frezzer then conect and get the data quick

Do not put the drive in the freezer. That is an excellent way to ensure you will never get any data off the drive. Read below:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3035...to-save-a-hard-drive-doesnt-work-anymore.html

https://acsdata.com/hard-drive-freezer-trick/

https://www.gillware.com/blog/data-recovery/hard-drive-freezer-data-recovery-myth/

http://www.datarecoverygroup.com/articles/freezing-your-hard-drive-bad-idea

I could link more but surely you will get the point by now.

 

[Jake snake]

Just as a side question could replacing the pcb help at all for a temporary fix in order to recover the data? Also right now I have my faulty hard drive sitting quietly on a shelf. Until I can figure out the best option moving forward.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Just as a side question could replacing the pcb help at all for a temporary fix in order to recover the data? Also right now I have my faulty hard drive sitting quietly on a shelf. Until I can figure out the best option moving forward.

It would be difficult to impossible to find an exact match for the PCB. If you don't get the exact one, you could destroy all chances of getting your data off the drive.

the best option is to do nothing yourself and send the drive to a data recovery specialist. Sadly, that can easily cost well north of $1,000. I know that is steep but it is your safest option.

If your budget can't stand that steep of a price tag, let me see if I can get Jumanji, Win 7's unofficial drive guru involved here to see if he might be able to help.

 

[Jake snake]

It would be difficult to impossible to find an exact match for the PCB. If you don't get the exact one, you could destroy all chances of getting your data off the drive.

the best option is to do nothing yourself and send the drive to a data recovery specialist. Sadly, that can easily cost well north of $1,000. I know that is steep but it is your safest option.

If your budget can't stand that steep of a price tag, let me see if I can get Jumanji, Win 7's unofficial drive guru involved here to see if he might be able to help.

I have been able to locate a pcb that matches my drive exactly but I am scared to attempt such a task. If you can get Jumanji to help that would be awesome. I am all ears for possible options.

 

[Jake snake]

Sorry to double post but in my haste to get some sort of an answer I forgot to mention what my HDD was.
seagate
sv35.5
S/N: 5VPBH6ZM
ST31000526SV
P/N: 1AA 154-500
Firmware: CV15
Date Code 12377
CSO: 1336-1
Site Code WU
once again sorry for the double post. I hope this extra info may be of some use.

 

[jumanji]

A clicking HDD means a physically damaged drive. You had already seen it go from bad to worse as you continued your efforts to salvage the data. BIOS not seeing it, HDD not appearing in Disk Management. Any further run/data recovery effort will only hasten it to its ultimate resting place. ( First of all, if the drive is not seen, no DIY data recovery is possible.) Changing the PCB is not going to repair the mechanical damage.

Your only hope is Professional Data recovery in a clean room. How much data you will still get unscathed will still be a big question mark - will depend upon the extent of damage, if any, done to the platters..

hmmm......jumanji is hopelessly helpless in this case. Sorry for that.

 

[Jake snake]

It's fine. I am just happy that I have some sort of answer. I will just put the drive on my shelf and wait until I gain the funds for professional assistance. If I may ask one last question. Do you know of any reputable recovery companies?

 

[jumanji]

I am in India. Don't know the state of affairs in India itself , much less in USA. May be other folks in USA may advise you.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It's fine. I am just happy that I have some sort of answer. I will just put the drive on my shelf and wait until I gain the funds for professional assistance. If I may ask one last question. Do you know of any reputable recovery companies?

One of the drive experts (Lord Xeb) over on OCN.net, who works in data recovery, recently suggested these data recovery pros:

OnTrack
WeRecoveryData
SalvageData
CBL

 

[LMiller7]

In the event of data loss it is important to consider early on whether or not professional recovery is worth the cost. In many cases drives are literally recovered to death. In many cases the data could have been recovered by a professional without undue difficulty, but still expensive. But instead the owner made numerous attempts with multiple programs and recovered little. In the process the drive is so damaged that even professional data recovery was impossible.

A data recovery professional will with his experience and information provided by the owner try to design a recovery procedure that is likely to be the most successful, with the lowest cost, and with the lowest risk if things go wrong. Naturally, such professional expertise is expensive.

Replacement of the drive PCB is not as simple as it may seem. A board from a drive of the same model isn't good enough. Such drives may in fact have come from factories in different countries and have significant internal differences. The donor drive must be a very close match, exactly which numbers that must match depends on the drive. Even then there is usually drive specific information from the original drive, contained in an EEPROM, that must be transferred over. This is doable but not really a simple procedure.

But considering that the drive became progressively worse over a short time it would seem to be a mechanical problem. I would guess the read write heads as being the problem. Damaged heads often cause platter damage. That is a job for a professional with a "cleanroom", the proper specialized tools, and a high degree of skill. That will be expensive.

Warning: There are some Internet articles and Youtube videos that have a very simplistic and amateurish approach to data recovery. I have seen some articles that suggest a platter swap as a viable do it yourself option. This means transferring the platter form the bad drive into a good drive for the purposes of transferring data. The articles seem to suggest this is a real possibility for a home user. In reality this is one of the most difficult and challenging procedures available to a recovery professional. Articles I have seen are shorter than this post and barely mention the numerous complex issues involved. I read an article where an individual thoroughly researched the procedure and prepared for the procedure. This was attempted on 3 separate occasions with different drives. All failed with the destruction of the drives involved and no data recovered.

The best way to deal with a failed drive is to replace it and recover the data from backups created before problems developed. A failed drive is little more than an inconvenience. All files of any importance should have at least one backup copy, 2 or more backup copies if the files are of particular importance. Unfortunately most people don't think of backups until it is too late.

Note that I am not a data recovery professional. I have just read about it. As I maintain backups I haven't had the need for recovery procedures.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...The best way to deal with a failed drive is to replace it and recover the data from backups created before problems developed. A failed drive is little more than an inconvenience. All files of any importance should have at least one backup copy, 2 or more backup copies if the files are of particular importance. Unfortunately most people don't think of backups until it is too late.

Note that I am not a data recovery professional. I have just read about it. As I maintain backups I haven't had the need for recovery procedures.

Excellent advice! I'm also a proponent of backups but, for the OP, it would be closing the barn door after the horse bolted so I didn't mention it. However, in the future, backups will allow easy data recovery with no additional cost. The additional drives needed for backups do cost money but that is a tiny fraction of what data recovery, which has no guarantees of success, would cost.

 

[Megahertz07]

If your HDD doesn't show on BIOS, is electronic problem. If it shows but has a noise, it's probably mechanic.

Before you throw out or away on the trash can, you can try this
How to recover data from a hard drive (stuck heads: buzzing, clicking, etc) - YouTube

ONLY open the HDD as last option.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The drive is failing. It is a mechanical issue. The more he runs the drive, the more it will be damaged, meaning the cost of professional data recovery will be higher and the chance of a successful recovery will be lower. The best thing he can do is leave the darned thing alone until he can get professional assistance!

Read this post by Lord Xeb over on OCN.net. This guy is a data recovery expert. He does data recovery for a living so he has to know what he is talking about.

 

[Jake snake]

I contacted CBL and I have to get my hard drive to them in order to get a quote for how much it will cost to recover. Unfortunately the lab is about an hour and a half drive from my house. I will see about getting there at some point but as of now I am not going to mess with the drive.

 

[Megahertz07]

Sigh. Here we go again.

English isn't my natural language, but I think I made it crystal clear:

Before you throw out or away on the trash can, you can try this
How to recover data from a hard drive (stuck heads: buzzing, clicking, etc) - YouTube

ONLY open the HDD as last option.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Sigh. Here we go again.

English isn't my natural language, but I think I made it crystal clear:

Before you throw out or away on the trash can, you can try this
How to recover data from a hard drive (stuck heads: buzzing, clicking, etc) - YouTube

ONLY open the HDD as last option.

Yes, you did. I'm sorry, I missed that part.

 

[slam5]

I have been able to locate a pcb that matches my drive exactly but I am scared to attempt such a task. If you can get Jumanji to help that would be awesome. I am all ears for possible options.

Don't do it. Your problem is the platter had gone bad or wonky. I highly doubt a PCB will help you at all.

 

[slam5]

If you like to try a piece of software that MIGHT help you to recover the data. Try SPINRITE. GRC. It does not repair the drive but rather recover the data one last time so you can boot and back it up.