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[SOLVED] Clicking HDD

2K views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  Samius 
#1 ·
Hi,
I have a 1TB iomega prestige desktop hard drive (external USB hard drive) that I accidently dropped and now it's clicking and the PC do not detect it.

I opened the case and inside is a Samsung HD105SI internal hard drive.

I saw on the web that sometimes replacing the PCB can fix clicking and sometimes its the motor head or something like that.

My question is how do I know or test if it's the PCB or something else?

The drive is turning and the head is going back and forth causing the clicking sound.

Any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks!
 
#2 ·
Re: Clicking HDD

The drop damaged the heads and possibly the motor and possibly the platters. A board swap won't fix this one. Its not a do it yourself recovery case your going to have to send to a pro if you want the data off it. I wish the news was better. If it was running at the time of the drop then platter damage almost always happens. Most DR shops will do the diagnostics on it and provide a quote for repair for free.
 
#3 ·
Re: Clicking HDD

Thanks for quick response.

I checked 2 days ago for a quote for recovering the data but the price is so high I almost fainted (lol).
I was wishing for a PCB problem but I guess my chances are slim to none. I know it's not recommended but I opened the case to check (without touching anything inside). The top platter isn't scratch (don't know for the bottom ones) and the arm (heads) is going back and forth non stop (which makes the clicking noise).

Thanks again, I was hoping being able to recover all the data on it.
 
#4 ·
Re: Clicking HDD

A donor drive with matching heads will have to be purchased to get a set of heads the cost of donor can run up to $ 250.00 alone depending on how rare and availability. Not sure where your located. Was the drive running when it fell ? How much was the recovery quote ? Your correct opening it wasn't the best move and some DR firms charge more due to that as well. The clicking is the drive attempting to read the SA area and it can't. I assume haven't looked up this model has 4 platters which is 8 heads some 1TB have 2 platters just depends on manufacture
 
#5 ·
Re: Clicking HDD

Yes, it was runing when i dropped it (like 18 inches high or so). It has 3 platters. I am from Eastern Canada and the quote I got was a fix cost of 950$ from DataCent. I saw a same model of HDD on ebay for 258$. The weird thing is that when I bought it (Iomega Prestide HDD with that drive inside) it was on sale for 69$+taxes on dell.ca (funy isn't it). I have different data on it but the most important to me is the photos of my family. I have like 12,000 photos of vacations, sports competitions, etc...it's like 5 years of photos i would loose for my 11 years old boy.
 
#6 ·
Re: Clicking HDD

The quote is fair and I realize its a "shocker". I know of shops that quote 1500 - 2000 for same job anything less than 1K is good. I see many quotes in the 800-1K range for a case like yours. Its an expensive business to run. I know its too late but backups are cheaper and I am assuming this probably was "your backup" drive. Also cloud backup like carbonite is cheap moving forward. Best thing to do is shelf it until you get the $$$ for the recovery the more you run it the worse it can get.
 
#7 ·
Re: Clicking HDD

I found a couple DVDs with maybe 10%-15% of my pictures on them. It's not much but better than nothing.

You're right, that was my back-up disk, but I removed the files from the PC as the space was getting low on I should have made a second back-up in case but never did it.

I'll put it aside for now since it's not urgent data (like for work or something) and when i get the $$ i could try to go to a recovering service I guess.

Thanks again for your help and again for the quick responses!
Regards!
 
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