olrac

I've found plenty of instances of people experiencing the dreaded "click of death" but nothing regarding how to recover the data, other than paying someone else to do it.

My USB external drive has just begun clicking (I had just plugged it into my NAS to back it up) and it has all of my music on it (more than 400GB worth).

How can I recover these data???
Is the drive itself irreparable?

IT-Tech

Here is a shortened version of HDD recovery. This just covers the surface, but it will give you an idea of what is done and how the basic attempts are peformed.

Not many people are willing to do it because of the time and expense of the process. There are a lot of IF's, AND's, OR's, & BUT's when it comes to recovering a failed drive.

Like I said, this is a summary, but it should give you an idea of what is involved.

http://stupiddamncomputer.com/recove...ard_drive.html

Thanks!

olrac

Thanks.
From what I've read there and elsewhere, it sounds as if my only option is to use a data recovery service. How much should I expect to spend to recover around 500GB? Do they still charge if they are unable to recover the data?

raptor_pa

The reason you don't see how tos on fixing it is because with something like the click of death, it is not repairable at home. Even the simplest diagnostiv tools used in recovery start at about $3000 - and the top of line tools about $15,000. A GOOD hardware imager, designed to copy data from a drive that has some simple reading problems ( timeouts, excessive ECC errors etc costs about $4000. The laminar flow clean bench if the drive needs opened $5000-$8000. Add to that training and R&D costs - I've literally destroyed dozens of drives trying new techniques and methods - and the time to learn how to do it and to practice so you can do it reliably on a customer's ( or even your own drive) and it's just not something you can do at home. The WD drives are particularly tough. I assume this is a 500 GB or better disk - without knowing the model number of the actual drive inside the enclosure - probably has separators bwetween the platters... the tool to manipulate those platters will run you about $800. Getting the heads off and back on without destroying them - add 300 - 500 or a set of headcombs. WD drives secure the head alignment using the cover of the case. I have literally spent days readjusting the cover for head alignment after a head swap to get it to read again.
You will also need a matching HD for parts, matching part #'s is not enough.. must match Model # DCM, PCB label date of manufacture and country of origin for WD to ensure compatible parts.
That's why there are no step-by-steps for instructions, and why there are only a relatively small number of full service data recovery shops in the country.
And all of this is designed only to get the drive running long enough to get the data, it will not be a functional drive when it is finished.

olrac

I was actually only looking for an answer of whether the clicking is caused by an irreparable problem with the drive itself or whether I could take the drive out and put it into another enclosure. Every thread I've found regarding the "click of death" has devolved into people not specifying whether their fixes are for drives exhibiting this particular problem or a failure of another sort.

raptor_pa

The click of death has three normal causes. Bad head/preamp, corrupt firmware, platter damage in the Service area of the drive. None of these problems allow the drive to be accessed by user level software. What would be a first step however is to remove the disk from the enclosure and install it in a desktop as an internal drive, eliminating the USB translation. USB does not support the entire ATA command set. Mounted internally you will be able to see if the disk is recognized correctly by model number in the BIOS. Based on what you see there we can look at possible enxt steps.

olrac

That could take a while because I'm having a whole other problem with my desktop PSU, so all I have is my laptop.
I do have a spare desktop with no HDD. Could I use this, or would I need one with a drive already installed?

raptor_pa

You can test it there to see if it is detected by bios. That will be a good first indicator. It should be detected by moel number. If detected as WD_ROM_MODEL_XXXXXX ( XXXX being the drives 'factory' name) or not identified at all then there is an issue

olrac

Would you recommend waiting until I have a spare HDD, installing both, and then trying to get the data off if it somehow works with the SATA connection, testing to see if it is detected by the BIOS without a second drive, or just enlist a recovery service?

Anyone have experience with using a recovery service for this particular problem? What are my chances of losing the data permanently?

olrac

I'd like to personally thank my Luck for bailing on me when I was about to back-up the data. The drive showed no signs of problems until I plugged it into my NAS.
Calling around and looking online, it appears that recovering the data from this disk will cost no less than $600.
Given that all of the data on the disk are still available for me on CD and DVD, it looks like I have another couple of months of ripping ahead of me, because it's hardly worth the cost. I hope my optical drives and turntable are up to the challenge. Either that, or I'll just buy a parts drive for $20 and give a friend another $100 to use his clean room for an hour. Can't say I'd feel the same way if it were sensitive or non-reproducible data.

I had some long discussions with technicians at some of these firms that do data recovery. It's a shame that they seem to justify their prices based on their up-front capital costs. I thought that only the medical industry was brazen enough to try that. Good thing I'm not desperate like most of their customers; I feel bad for them.
My clients would drop me without a second thought if I ever attempted to work my start-up costs into my fees. I can hear it now - "$1000 an hour??? Are you INSANE??!!!" "Well, my equipment cost me $700k, plus $1500/year for maintenance, and my software cost $12k plus $500/year for maintenance, plus tuition, plus repaying my parents for everything they spent on me up until college, plus I've had my eye on this new car recently..."

It would be Hello, unemployment for me...

raptor_pa

If you can get a parts drive that is a match for $20.00 - go for it, I just spent three days looking for and paying $200 for an 80GB 5 yeard old donor drive. And if you don't amortize your start up costs and maintenance costs... then you won't be in buisness very long. :)

olrac

I just bought a matching drive off ebay. $54 with shipping. More than I'd hoped to spend, but I guess it's hard to find those older drives. Good thing it's a popular model. Thanks for your advice.

BTW, my fees are based on supply & demand (not what I spend on equipment), and I compete with several firms that use open-source software and outsourced labor. I charge roughly the going rate for my services (for basic consulting, that's just $80/hour). All of my start-up costs were paid in-full after just a few years. I guess it all depends on how desperate one's clients are for one's services. I can't wait to see how well these recovery firms compete when more newcomers charging more reasonable rates start affecting supply.

olrac

Hey - I haven't had a chance to try with the new drive yet, but I've found this tool online:
http://www.angledcables.com/usb-20-t...ce-rrusbd.html

Before I do anything drastic, what's the likelihood that it will do anything for me?

raptor_pa

That is just basically the USB housing without the housing :) Not going to help with the click of death or the drive being accessible.

olrac

Ah... Drats. Someone at a local shop told me he uses that with about a 50% success rate for failed drives, but I suspected he didn't understand what I was saying had happened to my drive. Thanks.