Clicking External Hard Drive

[eak1025 0]

Hi All,I really need help. I accidentally unplugged my external hard drive without "safely removing" it. Now when I plug it in and turn it on it just keeps clicking. The pc's that I have plugged it into don't recognize it. Can anyone help me recover files off of it?

[BuffaloHelp 24]

Usually, clicking of a hard drive indicates damaged actuator arm that reads the hard drive surface. A hard drive usually does not get damaged only because you didn't safely removed an attached hardware. Perhaps your hard drive was on it's way out. There could have been some fore warnings. Like massive corrupted files or slow data retrieve compare to the first time you used etc.I've tried to salvage a clicking hard drive but nothing was successful (even the freezing hard drive method). I finally had the nerve to take the hard drive apart and perform an emergency transplant. I purchased an identical hard drive, took both apart, carefully placed working actuator arm to the broken one, reassemble and ran the hard drive for one last time, just enough to get my data out.Some say, just replacing the PC board of the hard drive actually fix the issue. So search on the web for the hard drive model and see if damaged PCB is the issue. In that case you're in luck--very easy to replace and you could have even longer working hard drive.

[eak1025 0]

The hard drive was bought relatively 3 months before I unplugged it incorrectly. There were no corrupt files to my knowledge.

Usually, clicking of a hard drive indicates damaged actuator arm that reads the hard drive surface.
A hard drive usually does not get damaged only because you didn't safely removed an attached hardware. Perhaps your hard drive was on it's way out. There could have been some fore warnings. Like massive corrupted files or slow data retrieve compare to the first time you used etc.

I've tried to salvage a clicking hard drive but nothing was successful (even the freezing hard drive method). I finally had the nerve to take the hard drive apart and perform an emergency transplant. I purchased an identical hard drive, took both apart, carefully placed working actuator arm to the broken one, reassemble and ran the hard drive for one last time, just enough to get my data out.

Some say, just replacing the PC board of the hard drive actually fix the issue. So search on the web for the hard drive model and see if damaged PCB is the issue. In that case you're in luck--very easy to replace and you could have even longer working hard drive.

[BuffaloHelp 24]

Hi. You responded to my post and I was looking for more insight to my question...I purchased my EHD in 11/2006 and I believe I unplugged it incorrectly in 1/2007 to use the cord. The pc and the EHD were both powered off at the time of disconnection. When I plugged it back in and powered up both machines the pc could not recognize it and the EHD clicked for about 2 minutes then goes silent. I have been trying to find help to at least recover the data off of it because this machine was my backup location for my pc. That particular pc got a virus shortly after and I had to do a complete system restore back to factory settings. So for the last few years the EHD has been sitting in the original box waiting for answers.
I was just looking at the screws and noticed I don't have a tool to get them out. The screws ar special.
After this explanation, do you have any new insight.

Your clicking noise is coming most likely from the arm actuator. It's like a record player where the needle actuator is trying to land on the track to get the sound, but the actuator is not landing correctly or not going to the starting position. This is a common occurrence to a faulty hard drive--whether it was caused by external force or internal defectiveness.

Take a look at this site which has recording of clicking noises of various hard drives. And next time, it's best to list your hardware specification, such as hard drive manufacturer, serial number, model number etc at the beginning of your post :angel:

http://www.datacent.com/hard_drive_sounds.php

[cons 0]

It could possibly be the actuator arm, but since a hard disk have other mechanical parts it's hard to tell for sure. Plug the HD back in and go to your CMOS settings. See if the BIOS recognizes your HD. If it does but doesn't appear in your "my Computer" or device manager (am assuming you're using Windows), try using a live disc and see if it is able to recognize the HD. You can try the linux distros like knoppix, slax to mount the disc and recover the files. If you're using XP, hiren's boot cd has file recovery utilities you can use, so does winPE (all freeware).