i turned myexternal HD on the otherday and it just clicks numerous times then it sounds like it starts over and the clicking starts again... it does this about 2-3 times then turns itself off...

is there any way i can get the stuff off of it?

It sounds like it's fried... the only way to retrieve data from a damaged HD that I know of(other then fixing it yourself somehow) is to pay a company around $100-500 per GB of data retrieved.

If nothing else works, and your data isn't super important you might want to try putting th drive in a plastic sealable bag, and putting it in the freezer. Look it up on google. But it is called the "click of death" for a reason.

yeah, mine just did that a few weeks back. i'm thinking of just gettting a used one and trying surgery to move the plates over. worst case: i screw up and am out 50$. best case: i save my data and still have a 120 gig hdd.

Let us know how that goes.
-mm

the slightest piece of dirt or dust inside your hard drive will kill it, i really dont suggest fixing it yourself. youre screwed, and might as well admit it

ill give someone 50 bucks if they can fix mine i really need some videos off of it (not porn). and if you surgically fix yours let me know i might have u do mine

I've often thought about just messing around with a few of my old drives, but in order to actually swap the plates, you have to have an identical drive to swap to, which I lack. If you don't then the actual board on the drive itself won't be able to read the data correctly, or most likely even at all.
-mm

Sounds of hard drive death:
http://www.hitachigst.com/hddt/knowtree ... enDocument

There are companies that will recover the data for about $500. That includes recovering all of the data, not on a per GB basis.
...but yeah...that's really pricey, so swapping plates is your only cheap solution, which is extremely risky.

OOH, I suggest a putting it in a freezer, cause everyone totally suggests that, and it totally works. Totally. But nevermind, I can't say why or explain any reasoning

Don't fucking do that.


That click can be a few things. It tends to involve head crashes, resulting in them reparking and trying to go out and read data repeatedly.


I have never moved platters between drives. I doubt you have access to a decent clean room. Steam tends to make dust fall to the ground. If you have a shower, you could run hot water to clean up the air temporarily for some surgey. Be sure its not too steamy, and platter transfer to a similar drive could potentially work. That is, at least long enough to move any important data to a good drive.

Its a bit extravagant. But clicks mean you're boned anyways.

I've often thought about trying to get into the ME building's clean room just for that purpose, but then I loose motivation.

You could try there.
-mm

Putting a hard drive in the freezer makes no sense.

What class is the ME clean room? I worked in a 10k clean room over the last 2 summers, and it didn't really seem that clean.

I personally have no idea. I just know from a friend that handles the laser that there is one.

Sorry
-mm