Can you retrieve data from an external hard drive (hitachi) that is making a clicking noise and my computer won't recognize it?

There are a lot of tricks that you could try to get the drive working again, but I've no guarantees that they won't destroy it in the process. I'd start by getting set up for recovery: get your disk copying software loaded and ready to go on your recovery computer. I'd then remove the drive from the external case itself.

Get an IDE-USB adapter, so you can experiment on the bare drive. Then I'd try a lot of things, starting from least risky to most risky. As I try each thing, I'd then reconnect power to the drive and give it another shot.

And if any of these crazy suggestions begins to work, IMMEDIATELY copy the important data to another drive before it dies again. You may have only minutes before the drive dies again. 1.

Try it first with just the replacement external IDE-to-USB converter. Maybe you only damaged some of the external drive case electronics or power supply. 2.

Reseat all visible ribbon cables (likely just the head cable) - they're kind of tricky to plug back in, but you won't likely damage much. 3. Remove the IDE board, and reseat the motor ribbon wires.

Check the motor screws, it's possible that the motor may have broken itself free from the frame. Replace the IDE board and power it up. 4.

Hold the drive between thumb and forefinger on each end of the axis of the platters (so that the drive can "pivot" around the same axis as the platters. As you power it on, tap sharply along the longest free edge to rotate the housing, while the platters remain stationary due to inertia. The idea is to get the platters momentarily turning in relationship to the drive housing.

That might be enough for the motor to start spinning. Do this over a short drop to a very soft surface, or you'll just make things worse if you drop it again. 5.

If you have another identical drive, you could try swapping the IDE board. 6. Place the drive in the freezer for half an hour, then power it up.

This shrinks the metals in a funny way (aluminum shrinks much more than steel) that might free up some sticky bearing surfaces. It's best if you could leave the drive in the freezer itself while you try this, because otherwise you might get a lot of condensation when you bring it out into room temperature air. Before you take it out of the freezer, use the air conditioning to help lower the room's humidity to reduce condensation, and consider standing there with a hot air hair dryer to warm it up and keep the moisture away.

Don't experiment with the drive if it's actually wet. 7. (Last shot) You could open the case, and try to get things moving by hand.

See if the head armature has been knocked off the platters, and recover it with a micro screwdriver and/or tweezers. Avoid move the heads across the platters more than necessary. As you power it on, try spinning the platters with your finger to get them started (touch ONLY the center screws, never the platter surfaces.) Opening the case is pretty much guaranteed to ruin your drive, as dust will quickly destroy the heads and media.

Unless you're in a laboratory clean room, you'll likely have only minutes before it finally dies. The best approach is to make your own sort-of clean room. Start by minimizing dust sources and air movements: turn off all fans in the room, close all windows and vent ducts, and then vacuum the room thoroughly (floors, walls and ceiling, plus your work table, especially the recovery computer keyboard and mouse area including their wires, and vacuum the victim drive itself.

) As much as possible keep the vacuum exhaust pointing outside the door while you clean as they emit lots of dust, and vacuum the path to your work table as the very last task, backing out of the room. After vacuuming, leave the room closed for a while so the remaining dust settles. You then want to minimize air movement while you enter and work, so enter slowly and remain as still as possible while working because your clothing sheds fibers and dust when you move (unless you're in a polyester suit such as Tyvek).

Keep your feet still while you work because they kick up tremendous amounts of dust. Sit still in the room for at least 5 minutes before opening the case itself. And if you don't have a surgical mask handy, avoid breathing in the direction of the open drive.

If you do get the drive spinning, gently set the cover back on it to keep out more dust (ignore the screws for now) and immediately begin your recovery work. Good luck!

My ex girlfriends hard disk had this clicking once so I decided to make a backup. 2 Days later the computer started to power off whenever the clicking appeared. Within a week the drive was dead.. So if it's still running make sure you back it up.

I would suggest you just buy another drive, losing your data sucks big time (I know) but in the end it's up to you to determine if you want to pay tons for the data recovery. The only thing I really missed afterwards was my music collection.My setups for applications are stored separately and most of the files were for school and stuff, I didn't use them anymore. Last thing you could do is placing the external drive as a slave inside your computer.

Chances are not big but you never know..

If it is making a clicking noise, chances are good that there is something causing the memory storage not to spin. If the data is really important, you can take it to a company taht specializes in data recovery. In teh best case, they might be able to unblock the spindle without charging you a lot of money.In the worst case scenario, they will charge you a ton to reccover the data.

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