Hard Drive Recovery

**ISUCyclones2015** · 07-25-2012, 09:09 PM

Well I am an idiot and I knocked over my external hard drive onto my tile floor while it was running. I'm pretty mad about it only because it has some personal pictures of mine (like my backpacking trips and such).

It's making a clicking noise and won't recognize in BIOS or in Windows.

Any drastic measures to get it back? Got a few quotes from a professional recovery place and its like $700

I've heard of freezing it, baking it, frisbee motion, tapping it with a hammer... don't know which one I'll try first...

**Cyballz** · 07-25-2012, 09:12 PM

sorry brah, gonna have to take some new pictures of your junk.

**Rabbuk** · 07-25-2012, 09:13 PM

Shoulda got a dell.

**ISUCyclones2015** · 07-25-2012, 09:29 PM

Originally Posted by Cyballz

sorry brah, gonna have to take some new pictures of your junk.

How did I know that was gonna be a post on here? lol

**Cyclonepride** · 07-25-2012, 09:32 PM

Good luck with that. I have my own pathetic thread on here from a while back, and my hard drive left without giving me back anything.

**bos** · 07-25-2012, 09:33 PM

It's wrecked. If you need the photos that bad a pro will have to take the platters out.

**ISC** · 07-25-2012, 09:40 PM

Dropping a drive while running is not good, so i would put your chances of recovery at very slim... but if anything can, try spinrite... it is BY FAR THE BEST recovery program (it's saved me more times than i can count).

You're only other option is taking it to a company that specializes in recovery (very expensive)

GRC|Hard drive data recovery software

**ISUCyclones2015** · 07-25-2012, 09:43 PM

Originally Posted by ISC

Dropping a drive while running is not good, so i would put your chances of recovery at very slim... but if anything can, try spinrite... it is BY FAR THE BEST recovery program (it's saved me more times than i can count).

You're only other option is taking it to a company that specializes in recovery (very expensive)

GRC|Hard drive data recovery software

See I've thought about spinrite but I didn't think it would even work because it won't even be recognized in BIOS.

**Cydarm** · 07-25-2012, 10:02 PM

If you go commit a heinous crime the authorities will do it for you free.

**nboltz** · 07-25-2012, 10:28 PM

It might be accessible as a slave drive. I've recovered data by hooking a bad drive up to another computer before.

**Cydarm** · 07-25-2012, 10:45 PM

In all seriousness, you just need a way to spin it, not too hard.

**ISUCyclones2015** · 07-25-2012, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by nboltz

It might be accessible as a slave drive. I've recovered data by hooking a bad drive up to another computer before.

Was already a secondary slave drive

Originally Posted by Cydarm

In all seriousness, you just need a way to spin it, not too hard.

It spins up for about 5 seconds then powers down

**Cydarm** · 07-25-2012, 11:09 PM

Originally Posted by ISUCyclones2015

Was already a secondary slave drive

It spins up for about 5 seconds then powers down

Figure out rpm and get a motor and a pot and run it with some work and a mild way to connect to drive.

**digZ** · 07-25-2012, 11:25 PM

Is it making any sort of diagnostic beeps (the HD, not the motherboard)? Usually these have some sort of meaning depending on the manufacturer and can give you insight into what's actually going wrong in the drive. A clicking noise can be a lot of things, but usually it means the drive is trying to recover from some fatal mechanical error with the platters or the read head being out of wack. If it's a mechanical failure, it would take an unbelievable streak of dumb luck to fix it by hitting it, or lots of money for a pro to read data off of the drive.

**TykeClone** · 07-25-2012, 11:30 PM

Originally Posted by ISC

Dropping a drive while running is not good, so i would put your chances of recovery at very slim... but if anything can, try spinrite... it is BY FAR THE BEST recovery program (it's saved me more times than i can count).

You're only other option is taking it to a company that specializes in recovery (very expensive)

GRC|Hard drive data recovery software

I'm TykeClone and I endorse this message (I've actually done this a couple of times where it worked. It's a lot cheaper to do this than it is to send it to a recovery place).