The other day my desktop (dell dimension 4 yrs old) was on standby and when i went to wake it, the computer would not boot up. There is a strange clicking noise coming from the HDD and when you boot it up it makes the clicking noise along with the a noise as if the HDD is trying to search for something. hard to explain the sounds but i did do some research and im pretty sure the HDD went on me or is on its last leg. anyway im wondering if anyone has a guide, turorial, link as to how i can try and access the HDD on this computer and pull some of my files (songs, papers, etc). i got the ultimate boot cd and have an external HDD that i was just goint to clone to but i would need to upgrade from the free version of HD CLONE 3.2. just wondering if someone knows of a better program. any help is appreciated...
copy-->paste? or norton ghost? also if the prob is that the head is hitting the platter i have learned that if u put the HDD in a freezer that it shrinks everything thereby keeping the head off of the platter thereby making it functional until it warms up
thanks for the advice, i'll have to try it out sometime. i actually bought a new WD hdd and am currently installing my old software. that is the 2nd time i read about the freezer thing so i'll try it when things calm down. luckily i printed off some of the spreadsheet that i was currently working on so all wasn't lost from that night but man i learned the lesson hard in not backing up my work. oh well thanks again
If it just randomly happened, it sometimes works to hit the HDD in the corners lightly (like on carper) and then let it load. Even if it clicks, just keep it on for about an hour. If after an hour its still stuck at the same spot, then its dead. TRY THIS AS YOUR LAST RESORT AS IT MAY DAMAGE THE DRIVE FURTHER!
Here is what I have done to save data from a 'clicking' drive. I take the bad drive and put it in a USB enclosure. Hook it up to a running PC. I have found that Windows will time out trying to read a drive after a while.....figures. So, I custom build a linux install with NTFS support built into the kernel, and hook up the drive to teh linux box. Linux does not give up so easily. You can check the logs to see if the drive mounted. If it did not, just unplug and plug back in. Once you know it mounted, open the drive. It may take 10-15 minutes to load the data, but you will eventually be able to copy the data off. (most times) If it hits that bad spot where it starts to tick, let it sit. Sometimes it is able to recover and continue the copy. This has been my experience, at least. A gentle nudge of the drive when it hits the bad spots sometimes helps the drive get going again. Like stated earlier, this can cause more damage. Bu I figured, "what do I have to lose'? ~Rich p.s. The freezer thing actually does work. I have done that too.
