Broken Hard Drive

SomethingElse

I dropped my external hard drive this evening. It landed with a mighty wallop and now it makes the dreaded clicking noise when I switch it on Has anyone used a data recovery company to retrieve files? Are they expensive?

stellarartois

Yes and they're kinda expensive, kinda are

Skerries

it sounds like it is knackered
it costs a lot to get data recovered but if you need then thats it really
if it isn't important then try the 1 inch trick or the freezer trick

Standard Toaster

x in the city

SomethingElse wrote: »

I dropped my external hard drive this evening. It landed with a mighty wallop and now it makes the dreaded clicking noise when I switch it on Has anyone used a data recovery company to retrieve files? Are they expensive?

buy an identical drive like it

rip it open and swap around the drive heads and hope for the best.


* probably not the reply you wanted...:p

if your data is really important... data recovery companies charge accordingly it seems

SomethingElse

Skerries wrote: »

it sounds like it is knackered
it costs a lot to get data recovered but if you need then thats it really
if it isn't important then try the 1 inch trick or the freezer trick

These sound interesting! What do they involve?

Skerries

well the one inch trick is to drop it from one inch onto a hard flat surface to try and dislodge the heads from the platters
the freezer trick is where you put the drive in a sealed plastic bag and stick it in the fridge over night and this should move the heads, you then have to be quick to back up any data you need before it warms up too much and gets stuck again

*warning these tips may void warranty *

Fallen Buckshot

the freezer trick may only work if it was in the machine and just started clicking never tried it on one thats been dropped. I would avoid dropping it again because it could cause further damage

SomethingElse

I'm pretty much resigned to losing all the files that are on it - the data recovery option would be too expensive. I tried dropping it - no luck there. It's in the freezer at the moment!