[chemotkbilo]

I pulled my external hard drive (the backup) from its secure location to copy files to my NAS. at exactly 7GB of data copied, the HDD starts clicking, and no more data was being transferred. I unplugged the HDD from the NAS, and hooked it up to my Mac. The HDD spun and then started to click, and then powered down. Western digital discovery software recognized it being connected, but unable to access it. I launched disk utility and it was not recognized. I tried terminal and it was not listed with any of the volumes. Last two ditch, I tried ddrescue and linux and with no luck. None of these tools were able to recognize that the HDD exist, and only WD discovery software did.
What could be the issue? a firmware problem? PCB or the head assembly?

 

[Corday]

Sounds like the HD died. If you want to have any chance of data recovery, stop doing anything.

 

[chemotkbilo]

Sounds like the HD died. If you want to have any chance of data recovery, stop doing anything.

That I am aware of, I am trying to brainstorm whether it is the PCB, firmware, or the head assembly. If it the former two, I can fix it myself, but if the latter, the data is not worth the price tag that comes with professional recovery.

 

[bassfisher6522]

I pulled my external hard drive (the backup) from its secure location to copy files to my NAS.

Is this HDD in an enclosure?

 

[chemotkbilo]

Is this HDD in an enclosure?

it is an external HDD (WD MyPassport)

 

[spunk.funk]

The USB Connector is soldered on the board and is a proprietary connection, so removing the drive out of the enclosure will not allow you to connect it to another USB Adapter. But It's most likely a parked head, so the Head Assembly is the issue. Hard Drive Clicking? Common Causes and How to Recover Data | Flashback Data

 

[Roguecroc]

I pulled my external hard drive (the backup) from its secure location to copy files to my NAS. at exactly 7GB of data copied, the HDD starts clicking, and no more data was being transferred. I unplugged the HDD from the NAS, and hooked it up to my Mac. The HDD spun and then started to click, and then powered down. Western digital discovery software recognized it being connected, but unable to access it. I launched disk utility and it was not recognized. I tried terminal and it was not listed with any of the volumes. Last two ditch, I tried ddrescue and linux and with no luck. None of these tools were able to recognize that the HDD exist, and only WD discovery software did.
What could be the issue? a firmware problem? PCB or the head assembly?

Sounds like the hard drive arm is stuck, if its been dropped that will do it.