Without knowing the specifics of your situation, I’m tempted to go with the computer guys and say that unfortunately, your data is probably toast. Does anything happen when you turn on the PC? Are you getting any error messages? Does it hang when it is trying to boot? Is this a laptop or desktop? I’m assuming you have no backup of the data. Unfortunately, a lot of techs say that it is not a question of if your hard drive will fail; it is only a question of when.

If nothing is happening, you really have nothing to lose, so you might as well try a few things before using the hard drive as a doorstop.

Data Recovery Programs

There are a lot of data recovery programs out there, ranging from freeware to some that charge substantially more money. They may or may not work for you, depending on what your computer is actually capable of at the moment. Clicking noises generally indicate a physical or mechanical problem with the drive so using a data recovery tool is a long shot. Two to try are Recoversoft data recovery and SpinRite. Unfortunately, if your computer won’t even boot in Safe Mode, then you can’t get to the Web and use these programs. Plus, mechanical problems don’t lend themselves to this option. In addition, mechanical problems tend to scratch the surface of the drive, severely damaging data as a result.

Hard Drive as Slave

You might want to try using your hard drive as a slave on another master computer. The easiest way to do this is with a hard disk enclosure. You can pick one up for under $25 either on the web or in a computer store. You mount the old hard drive in it and then connect the whole thing via a USB port to a working computer. Many computer stores will do this for you if you bring your old hard drive in and are not comfortable setting this up yourself-I’m not sure if your computer guys tried this or not. You can then run data recovery programs on your hard drive via this working computer.

Just be sure that you are not throwing good money after bad-you might want to see if you can get a second opinion on your computer before you spend any more money. If you’re not confident with the diagnosis, ask around and see if someone near you knows of a reputable tech that might be able to help. Without seeing it in action (or inaction), it’s hard to say if there is anything to salvage or not. However, those clicking sounds are ominous indeed.

Kat Delong | December 24th, 2008
Tags: hard drive click of death, hard drive clicking and data recovery
Categories: Data Recovery

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