Hard Drive Issues

deadanonymau5

So last night my hard drive WD Elements 2TB (portable) made a click noise while I was watching a video on it then it froze and I couldnt watch the video anymore, so I unplugged it. Now when I try to use it, I can't on either my Macbook pro or Windows pc.

The hard drive doesn't show up on my desktop on my Macbook.
When I go into Disk Utility on my Macbook, it shows the hard drive but it is greyed out.

In Disk utility the details are:

Mount point: Not mounted
Format: MS DOS (FAT)
Capacity: 2TB
Available: -
Used: -
Number of files: -

When I plug it into my PC, Windows crashes and freezes until I unplug the USB.

The hard drive is only 5 months old but has/had 1.1TB of data on it. It was working fine until yesterday. I have alot of files on it that I dont have backed up (I know....silly me) and that are important to me.



Does anyone have any suggestions on what to try? What could be the issue?
I would greatly appreciate any input.

Thanks in advance.

stevek93

Did you try running chkdsk in Windows?

johndoe99

you have what's referred to as the 'click of death', the drive attempts to start and fails, the drive head is clicking back and forth.

if it's only 5 months old, it will be still under warranty

http://support.wd.com/warranty/index_end.asp?lang=en

degsie

Some useful tips here.

http://twit.tv/show/know-how/79

deadanonymau5

stevek93 wrote: »

Did you try running chkdsk in Windows?

I tried this but, a window appears and dissapears immediately. My PC isnt in a great shape.

johndoe99 wrote: »

you have what's referred to as the 'click of death', the drive attempts to start and fails, the drive head is clicking back and forth.

if it's only 5 months old, it will be still under warranty

http://support.wd.com/warranty/index_end.asp?lang=en

Ive read about that and was hoping it wasnt the case. I've a lot of sensitive information on there and so I'm reluctant to send it back. Not sure what to do now!

degsie wrote: »

Some useful tips here.

http://twit.tv/show/know-how/79

johndoe99

deadanonymau5 wrote: »

Ive read about that and was hoping it wasnt the case. I've a lot of sensitive information on there and so I'm reluctant to send it back. Not sure what to do now!

If you do send it back, WD have a Data Recovery facility to recover the information, whether this is covered by the warranty, i don't know.

riclad

YOu. Could. Try. Hard drive freeze. Trick,
Put drive. ,with no cables,
In. The. Freezer in a sealed zip lock. Bag,
For. 3 hours. ,take out. Plug in ,make sure its dry,

It might work,
But you,ll Need another drive to copy data too,
If. It. works.?
Google hard drive freeze. Trick,


http://lifehacker.com/5515337/save-a-failed-hard-drive-in-your-freezer-redux

PropJoe10

That freezer trick would be a terrible idea, especially if the drive is under warranty. Plus, I have never once seen it work.

degsie

Let this be a lesson folks. Back up your stuff!

riclad

IF THE BAG IS perfectly SEALED, waterproof, freezer trick wont make it worse,
if it was my drive.
i,d open the case ,
remove drive .connect to pc,using, sata ,power , data, cables from pc dvd drive.
OF course this very LIKELY voids the warranty .

johndoe99

riclad wrote: »

IF THE BAG IS perfectly SEALED, waterproof, freezer trick wont make it worse,
if it was my drive.
i,d open the case ,
remove drive .connect to pc,using, sata ,power , data, cables from pc dvd drive.
OF course this very LIKELY voids the warranty .

it would be impossible to perfectly seal a bag without any air inside, this would cause condensation and when the drive is powered up it will get wet, and its plugged into a PC then. Very Dangerous.

riclad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-FnM5ojc28
heres a video ,
freezer trick worked in this case.
in theory .it gets the hard drive to spin up,
Whether it helps to recover your data is another question.
if my drive was out of warranty ,
i,d try it.
i heard today ,RAW rice is good to absorb moisture, condensation,
in a ziplock bag.
http://cnettv.cnet.com/extreme-measures-fix-your-ipod/9742-1_53-26261.html

i,d use the smallest bag i have,
this is to fix ,the click of death drive problem.
SOMETIMES it works, leave in for 12-24 hours.

Skerries

I've used the freezer trick successfully but ideally as a last resort

riclad

IT only fixs one problem,
drive not spinning up,
if a hardrive is not in a case,
and connected to a pc,
You can hold finger on drive,metal top,
feel it spin up.
you,ll feel a slight vibration.
There.s a pc store ,in phibsboro,
does pc hardrive data recovery.

beauf

Skerries wrote: »

I've used the freezer trick successfully but ideally as a last resort

I've seen it work twice. Drive only lasts about 20 mins before dying again.

riclad

i have 1 hardrive, 500 gig, sata ,
dead,
does not show up, in pc,windows or linux,
i presume the drive main pcb is dead.
its a standard pc drive ,not in a case.

degsie

^^^^^
Please start your own thread and don't hijack this one!

riclad

MY point is the drive is not completely dead,
it shows up as a device,
eg drive 2tb,
even if it cannot be acessed.
SO freeze trick might work, or an expert could recover the data.

deadanonymau5

OP here

Anyone have any experience with Data recovery companies/people?