To anyone who knows anything about harddrives...

[Undefined]

My idiot girlfriend (RAAAAAAAAAAGE) knocked my external HDD onto the floor (fell not even 12 inches onto carpet). Now it won't work at all, the LED turns on, I hear the goddamn click of death noise but it fails to boot up and doesn't show up on the computer... Google has told me 3 things:

1. I'm probably fucked.
2. Putting it in the freezer for a few hours MAY save my ass long enough to transfer some things over.
3. I can send it away to some place that will recover all the data but it will cost a shitload of money and there's no guarantee (not to mention 3.5 years of 4chan browsing, I am scared to even send it ).

Now I have accepted the drive is done, I will replace it, but if I could get it to read long enough I could quickly transfer over the pictures and documents that are important to me, and eventhough I'll lose close to 1TB of tv shows, movies and programs, I can replace that stuff...

SO WHAT DO I DO? Anyone have any solutions other than the ones I presented? I'd like to know before I stick my HDD in a freezer in a ziplock bag

Anyone who managed to save me will get 1 request of a picture of me doing pretty much anything. We can discuss it later


FUCKING PLEASE HELP ME BEFORE I BITE MY NUTSACK OFF AND FUCK THE WOUND WITH A RUSTY GARDEN HOE

 

[EddyRX10]

Rub bengay on your balls

 

[Undefined]

I should also mention to all subsequent posters that making stupid fucking comments does not make you funny and will only get you put on my ignore list. Not that you will give a fuck, but that is the only outcome.

 

[EddyRX10]

Cereal eh? I have a friend who is a king of data recovery. Will ask him.

EDIT: you tried CHKDSK?

e.g

CHKDSK C: /F /R then press Enter. The /R option tells CHKDSK to scan for bad disk sectors, and the /F option means to fix any errors found.

Thats for XP. What OS you using?

EDIT 2: Also if you've dropped it it may have misaligned the HD and alot of them are level sensetive. If thats the case you should be able to get it fixed without losing any data.

 

[Undefined]

Super cereal And well, the thing is man, it won't even READ on a computer... if I could see the letter drive I could run some scans to see what's up or file recovery programs like Spinrite... I don't know, like I hear the think boot up then it clicks and nothing happens, so I'm assuming it won't read and there's a possible hardware issue. I truly feel like a fucking family pet died or something... as sad as that is, this WAS my backup, and now it's possibly gone. It's the pictures and shit of family that will be the worst loss if it occurs.. hope not though. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

[Undefined]

EDIT 2: Also if you've dropped it it may have misaligned the HD and alot of them are level sensetive. If thats the case you should be able to get it fixed without losing any data.[/QUOTE]

Well, it's possible, when I have my wits about me I will go to futureshop or some computer place and inquire. What a waste of time and fucking money.... I can't even believe this is happening.

I'm hoping the freezer thing will work, I'm off tot he store to pick up some heavy duty ziplock bags

 

[EddyRX10]

Super cereal And well, the thing is man, it won't even READ on a computer... if I could see the letter drive I could run some scans to see what's up or file recovery programs like Spinrite... I don't know, like I hear the think boot up then it clicks and nothing happens, so I'm assuming it won't read and there's a possible hardware issue. I truly feel like a fucking family pet died or something... as sad as that is, this WAS my backup, and now it's possibly gone. It's the pictures and shit of family that will be the worst loss if it occurs.. hope not though. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I have the a drive with a similar symptom, turns out my PSU was overloaded and wasn't allowing the drive to draw the required current to perform seek / write ops reliably. I upgraded my PSU and so far so good. You could try disconnecting some devices and see if the problem improves. When trying to recover data (and getting desperate) I have tried the following:
Cooling the drive (in the freezer) then keeping it cool while transferring data (use a desk fan)
Standing the drive on its edge/end (changes the load on the spindle bearings, can help with weak head armatures)
Tapping the side of the drive when it clicks (helps a sticking head armature)

May or may not help. Few more suggestions on here

CNET Forum

 

[vikk]

My idiot girlfriend (RAAAAAAAAAAGE) knocked my external HDD onto the floor (fell not even 12 inches onto carpet). Now it won't work at all, the LED turns on, I hear the goddamn click of death noise but it fails to boot up and doesn't show up on the computer... Google has told me 3 things:

1. I'm probably fucked.
2. Putting it in the freezer for a few hours MAY save my ass long enough to transfer some things over.
3. I can send it away to some place that will recover all the data but it will cost a shitload of money and there's no guarantee (not to mention 3.5 years of 4chan browsing, I am scared to even send it ).

Now I have accepted the drive is done, I will replace it, but if I could get it to read long enough I could quickly transfer over the pictures and documents that are important to me, and eventhough I'll lose close to 1TB of tv shows, movies and programs, I can replace that stuff...

SO WHAT DO I DO? Anyone have any solutions other than the ones I presented? I'd like to know before I stick my HDD in a freezer in a ziplock bag

Anyone who managed to save me will get 1 request of a picture of me doing pretty much anything. We can discuss it later


FUCKING PLEASE HELP ME BEFORE I BITE MY NUTSACK OFF AND FUCK THE WOUND WITH A RUSTY GARDEN HOE

 

[innuenDO]

I have had several hard drives with fucked up sectors. The symptoms are pretty much the same though I dropped none of them.
Does the computer boot up without problems when the hard drive is connected?
Can you see the hard drive in the bios?

Before you put it in the freezer: Try to connect it normally to your computer with different cables and inputs. If one input doesnt work, unplug it, restart the computer and try the same input again. (believe me, sometimes it works!).
Don't do CHKDSK /r unless you know exactly what you are doing - it may delete your files!

 

[Undefined]

@EDDY: I appreciate the effort, all I can say is I have literally read every link on the first 5 pages of numerous google search strings. I am pretty sure I am fucked IF this freezer thing doesn't work. I'll ask an ITfag at the store tomorrow or at a computer shop if it's possible that it's uneven or something has come loose but really, the clicking noise is generally a bad thing. I watched a youtube video that said tapping it will dislodge the arm if it's stuck on something and the freezer will allow the drive to contract and allow for the parts that got moved to meet but 95% of the time those aren't the problems.

 

[EddyRX10]

Ye, I had a friend who's external HDD only worked when positioned on a slant because of a faulty arm. So you never know, you could get lucky. Also gutted about your /b/ folder.

 

[Chairman Kaga]

personally, I would just bring it to future shop and see if the nerds there could fix it. They fixed a bunch of other shit for me in the past anyways.