# My Hard drive makes a clicking sound and is not recognized by BIOS



## Holiday

I have a Western Digital 500GB SATA Hard Drive. It was working fine, then I tried to turn on my computer yesterday and it just kept making a "click" sound about every 5 seconds or so, and BIOS is not recognizing it 

I tried putting it in the freezer over night, then running it, but that didn't fix anything. The disks are spinning.

I want to recover my data, but I am lost. What should I do? And does anyone know exactly what is causing that clicking sound?


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## PC eye

Generally when you hear clicking sounds and a drive isn't listed in the post screen that spells "toast"! The clicking is may simply be a loud drive like seen in the video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eMWG3fwiEU or now being heard spells the worst where a data recovery service would be needed if the drive's heads/actuator are spent.

There's only a 3 nanometer gap between drive heads and the platters themselves where if the heads slapping there or the actuator is simply swinging rather freely the drive is gone. The cost for a recovery service?  !!! "that much!"


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## Holiday

I'm hearing you but not listening! (I know my drive is toast).
I will not take toast for an answer 
There has to be an ALTERNATIVE 
I've read some stuff about buying an identical HD and swapping the platters. Some say it will work but it is very risky  What do you ppl think about this idea?

Holiday


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## Cleric7x9

Holiday said:


> I'm hearing you but not listening! (I know my drive is toast).
> I will not take toast for an answer
> There has to be an ALTERNATIVE
> I've read some stuff about buying an identical HD and swapping the platters. Some say it will work but it is very risky  What do you ppl think about this idea?
> 
> Holiday



unless you have access to an anti-static lab, removing the platters with any hope of data recovery is impossible.


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## G25r8cer

You have to do it in an absolutley clean environment/room and anti-static. You must be very cautious. It's like doing surgery on a brain!! My friend has done it before but a couple days later the platter dropped and basically destroyed it. He was going to throw it away anyways.


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## camel lips

Cleric7x9 said:


> unless you have access to an anti-static lab, removing the platters with any hope of data recovery is impossible.


Doesent sound like he has anything to lose except his data.I say go for it.The worst thing you can lose is a few hours of your time,,,and your data.


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## Holiday

Alrighty then. Somebody has to tell me how to make a *Clean Room*!!! 
I will get my data back!


Here's what I'm thinking of so far: I will cut up a big trash bags and tape them together and hang them from the ceiling. so ultimately I will make a little almost air tight environment. Put an air purifier in it and dress myself in scrubs. Then I need to take an identical (good) hard drive, take out the platters and put the platters in it that I need to recover the data from.

So, how does that sound?


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## PC eye

Why do you think data recovery services get away with charging high prices? They are equipped for this type of activity. But they are equipped to read the platters individually as well as reading them while in the original casing. Those are precise gaps seen between drive heads and the platters themselves. If you are off only a little when getting the platters into another drive's casing... oops! oh well...


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## dznutz

rule is when the external doesn't work try taking the external casing apart and put the hard drive in the pc.  something may be wrong with the controller card.  hopefully you have the right connections and or extra cables.  report back to us after you try this.  

on a side note i wonder when will the majority of users buy another hd for important backups


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## patrickv

OP let me tell you something, having experience data loss time and time again, you cannot get an identical drive and swap the platters.
As someone posted you need to be in an anti static Lab.
Even if the smallest particle fell over those platters you're doomed.
i also had that thought when my hard drives burned. but i can't afford those anyways.
You're best bet is to give it to Recovery services somewhere as they have the means and machines to solve your problem.

trust me i know how it feels to lose data.. just do a search on me regarding data loss


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## Trizoy

If you plug it in as a secondary sometimes windows can repair HD problems.. But this doesnt sounds good.


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## Holiday

dznutz said:


> rule is when the external doesn't work try taking the external casing apart and put the hard drive in the pc.  something may be wrong with the controller card.  hopefully you have the right connections and or extra cables.  report back to us after you try this.
> 
> on a side note i wonder when will the majority of users buy another hd for important backups



It's an internal HD, not external


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## PC eye

I presumed that by simply looking in your sig indicating two other drives as well. 

With multiple drives here I never put everything into one basket as far as anything unreplacable. If a drive does go I still have another place to retrieve files from. 

Sometimes data disks become a problem too simply trying to read one burned on a different drive in an older case. The notorious "disk cannot be read" error!


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