WARNING: you should attempt this only if you can't/don't want to afford a professional rescue service, and/or you do not care too much to lose any data. DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!
Well, two days ago, suddenly, one of my internal HDD started to click like a crazy! Of course, as it is one of internal drive, no dropping, shocks etc. occured.
So, out of the blue, I was at risk of losing years of projects!
Checked the drive with CrystalDiskInfo, it was at risk - really? - so I tried to recover as much as I can.
I started with few MBs of personal data and, despite I was able to backup them, speed rate was sooo low, going from few MBs to zero, up and down, and clicking sounds continue. I tried with bigger files, few GBs, and after some up and down, it stuck at zero bytes transferring speed...
What should I do now? Freezing trick? No way, it would not work.
Professional data recovery? At €€€ (up to 800, more or less) I can't afford it, and, frankly, even if important to me, there were "only" free time projects, albeit fruit of hundred, thousand hours of work...
Then, I had a crazy idea in mind... as the clicking sounds are obvious symptoms of mechanical problems, I thought that maybe the arms moved out of their positions - how, and why, I have no idea. So, the right thing to do would be to take them back to their right posizion. But how, without opening the drive, and destroy all data?
Yep! I took the drive, "thrown" on the couch with all the force I had! Crazy, huh? I know! After five or six times, I put the drive back and, with my surprise, clicking sounds were still there, but reduced in time (not in intensity) - a sign, maybe, that some arm came back to the right position, and others not. So, I put it away again, another cycle of "cure", and then back. This time, NO CLICKS at all! Incredible!
I was able to backup all the data without problems, and during the various hours, no more clicks at all. After that, a slow format + wiping took a whole day, and still no clicks. Now the drive is up for sale on eBay (as faulty, of course), maybe someone could need the electronic parts.
Yes, a very unhortodox method to revive a clicking faulty drive, but when there are no chances, why not try new ways?
WARNING 2: remember to backup always your data - at least the personal and unmissable one, and DO NOT USE that drive again for anything but disposable data - like temporary files.
Well, two days ago, suddenly, one of my internal HDD started to click like a crazy! Of course, as it is one of internal drive, no dropping, shocks etc. occured.
So, out of the blue, I was at risk of losing years of projects!
Checked the drive with CrystalDiskInfo, it was at risk - really? - so I tried to recover as much as I can.
I started with few MBs of personal data and, despite I was able to backup them, speed rate was sooo low, going from few MBs to zero, up and down, and clicking sounds continue. I tried with bigger files, few GBs, and after some up and down, it stuck at zero bytes transferring speed...
What should I do now? Freezing trick? No way, it would not work.
Professional data recovery? At €€€ (up to 800, more or less) I can't afford it, and, frankly, even if important to me, there were "only" free time projects, albeit fruit of hundred, thousand hours of work...
Then, I had a crazy idea in mind... as the clicking sounds are obvious symptoms of mechanical problems, I thought that maybe the arms moved out of their positions - how, and why, I have no idea. So, the right thing to do would be to take them back to their right posizion. But how, without opening the drive, and destroy all data?
Yep! I took the drive, "thrown" on the couch with all the force I had! Crazy, huh? I know! After five or six times, I put the drive back and, with my surprise, clicking sounds were still there, but reduced in time (not in intensity) - a sign, maybe, that some arm came back to the right position, and others not. So, I put it away again, another cycle of "cure", and then back. This time, NO CLICKS at all! Incredible!
I was able to backup all the data without problems, and during the various hours, no more clicks at all. After that, a slow format + wiping took a whole day, and still no clicks. Now the drive is up for sale on eBay (as faulty, of course), maybe someone could need the electronic parts.
Yes, a very unhortodox method to revive a clicking faulty drive, but when there are no chances, why not try new ways?
WARNING 2: remember to backup always your data - at least the personal and unmissable one, and DO NOT USE that drive again for anything but disposable data - like temporary files.
But glad it worked for you!
.