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Yes, I know I should have backed up critical data to some other medium but I
didn't do that and I've already beat myself up for that so no one here needs
to do that.

My problem is that my hard disk is giving that "clicking sound of death" and
appears to have failed completely. My data is very important that is on it.
Any ideas on how to retrieve data from a failed hard disk?

- remove drive from case
- place drive into a glad FREEZER bag
- with a straw suck out all the air you can and seal the bag
- place bag with HD in your freezer for 1 hour
- quickly remove the drive from the freezer bag and return it to your
system
- you should be able to quickly copy drive contents to another drive
on your system.

The reason why this works is because if the drive has totally seized;
then, freezing it will cause the internal drive parts to very slightly
contract allowing the platters and read arm to move freely.


On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:55:42 -0800, "osote" <> wrote:

>Yes, I know I should have backed up critical data to some other medium but I
>didn't do that and I've already beat myself up for that so no one here needs
>to do that.
>
>My problem is that my hard disk is giving that "clicking sound of death" and
>appears to have failed completely. My data is very important that is on it.
>Any ideas on how to retrieve data from a failed hard disk?
>

"osote" <> wrote in message
news:CuSdnaJiOrKFwQCiRVn-...
> Yes, I know I should have backed up critical data to some other medium but
I
> didn't do that and I've already beat myself up for that so no one here
needs
> to do that.
>
> My problem is that my hard disk is giving that "clicking sound of death"
and
> appears to have failed completely. My data is very important that is on
it.
> Any ideas on how to retrieve data from a failed hard disk?
>
>
If it's a IBM drive, the problem is on the controller card on the drive.
Bad connection to the 4 pin power connection.

Try SpinRite. (don't have the site right now, but do a google for it)
good luck, hj

--
______________________
please remove the obvious from my email...
"osote" <> wrote in message
news:CuSdnaJiOrKFwQCiRVn-...
: Yes, I know I should have backed up critical data to some other medium but
I
: didn't do that and I've already beat myself up for that so no one here
needs
: to do that.
:
: My problem is that my hard disk is giving that "clicking sound of death"
and
: appears to have failed completely. My data is very important that is on
it.
: Any ideas on how to retrieve data from a failed hard disk?
:
:

that's interesting - McGyver would be impressed!

--
______________________
please remove the obvious from my email...
"Harrison" <> wrote in message
news:...
: - remove drive from case
: - place drive into a glad FREEZER bag
: - with a straw suck out all the air you can and seal the bag
: - place bag with HD in your freezer for 1 hour
: - quickly remove the drive from the freezer bag and return it to your
: system
: - you should be able to quickly copy drive contents to another drive
: on your system.
:
: The reason why this works is because if the drive has totally seized;
: then, freezing it will cause the internal drive parts to very slightly
: contract allowing the platters and read arm to move freely.
:
:
: On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:55:42 -0800, "osote" <> wrote:
:
: >Yes, I know I should have backed up critical data to some other medium
but I
: >didn't do that and I've already beat myself up for that so no one here
needs
: >to do that.
: >
: >My problem is that my hard disk is giving that "clicking sound of death"
and
: >appears to have failed completely. My data is very important that is on
it.
: >Any ideas on how to retrieve data from a failed hard disk?
: >
:

"hugh jass" <> wrote in message
newsqfnb.1883$.. .
> Try SpinRite. (don't have the site right now, but do a google for it)
> good luck, hj

http://grc.com/spinrite.htm


>
> --
> ______________________
> please remove the obvious from my email...
> "osote" <> wrote in message
> news:CuSdnaJiOrKFwQCiRVn-...
> : Yes, I know I should have backed up critical data to some other medium
but
> I
> : didn't do that and I've already beat myself up for that so no one here
> needs
> : to do that.
> :
> : My problem is that my hard disk is giving that "clicking sound of death"
> and
> : appears to have failed completely. My data is very important that is on
> it.
> : Any ideas on how to retrieve data from a failed hard disk?
> :
> :
>
>

Take a look: "200 ways to revive a hard drive"

http://www.hddrecovery.com.au/downloads/200ways.pdf

osote wrote:
>
> Yes, I know I should have backed up critical data to some other medium but I
> didn't do that and I've already beat myself up for that so no one here needs
> to do that.
>
> My problem is that my hard disk is giving that "clicking sound of death" and
> appears to have failed completely. My data is very important that is on it.
> Any ideas on how to retrieve data from a failed hard disk?

Harrison <> wrote:

>- remove drive from case
>- place drive into a glad FREEZER bag
>- with a straw suck out all the air you can and seal the bag
>- place bag with HD in your freezer for 1 hour
>- quickly remove the drive from the freezer bag and return it to your
>system
>- you should be able to quickly copy drive contents to another drive
>on your system.
>
>The reason why this works is because if the drive has totally seized;
>then, freezing it will cause the internal drive parts to very slightly
>contract allowing the platters and read arm to move freely.
>
>
>On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:55:42 -0800, "osote" <> wrote:
>
>>Yes, I know I should have backed up critical data to some other medium but I
>>didn't do that and I've already beat myself up for that so no one here needs
>>to do that.
>>
>>My problem is that my hard disk is giving that "clicking sound of death" and
>>appears to have failed completely. My data is very important that is on it.
>>Any ideas on how to retrieve data from a failed hard disk?
>>

I have tried the Freezer trick on an IBM 60Gb HDD formatted on an XP
PC as NTFS a couple of months ago. It was less than 2 yrs old and
could no longer be booted from. Putting the drive in another PC as a
slave allowed a few files to be read but that was all. The freezer
trick didn't work but I tried Ontrack Easy Recovery Professional and
was somewhat delighted to retrieve quite a bit of my data, some in the
correct folders and also it put files in dummy folders.

I would have no hesitation in using it again if needed.

As for your Drive, it depends what the "click of death" means. My
drive produced a regular pattern of softish clicks about every 5 secs.
I assumed that there was a read problem and it was rereading the
drive. When I tried the software it still made this noise but
recovered the files very slowly. (Took about 1 WEEK non stop). Luckily
I could do it in several chunks as the software allowed a restart from
where it left off

After I got what I could off the drive, I reformatted the drive and
started copying test data on the drive but it was very slow. I sent it
back the IBM (Hitachi) as luckily it was under guarantee and they
should be sending a replacement.

If you can get any data from the drive, I would try that software. I
saw a comment about spinrite but AFAIK a NTFS version is not out yet

I also had another drive that clicked (louder) once in a while but I
think it may have been an electrical problem on the board. I doubt
whether anything would have sorted that out apart from possibly
replacing the PCB with one from another drive. I tried the freezer on
this but to no avail.



Sorry I've rambled a bit but hope this helps