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Recently, this HDD has been having some issues: sometimes, I tried to open it on Windows and it took a while and only then it showed the folders inside; sometimes, the HDD didn't even appear, and then often I just restarted the computer and then it would appear. Today, it didn't appear, I restarted the computer, but nothing. I tried to replace the external circuit board with another one from a new similar HDD. But it just keeps making a clicking sound (~1 click per second), probably the head touching the center of the disk. You can watch it in this video: https://1drv.ms/v/s!ArkSHQ8jeIoc7Xe02WBnTXyJfH1E

Can I recover the data from this disk? Can I do it? I have similar disks. Or do I have to take it to some professional? Thanks a lot.

André Da Silva
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Stop using it. It is damaged. The clicking noise is physical damage being applied to your drive. If you want to recover the data you will have to pay money to get a specialist to recover the data. Assuming the drive is salvageable. There are some companies that do this, others that will lie and just take your money. Don't plug it in or turn it on again.

EDIT: Effectively only a specialist can determine exactly what is wrong with your drive. It could be something as small as a power, or board issue, to an actual header crash and scratch. Recovery solutions vary from a mechanical replacement of drive parts to reading the bits off the platter surface itself using a microscope. Without experience and knowledge more loss of data could result from your own attempts at repairing the drive. Scanning Probe Microscopy, Magnetic Force Microscopy, and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy are three example ways an expert could recover the data.

Gabriel Fair
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  • Hmm, ok. So, wouldn't it be possible to replace the head assembly or something to read the data? – André Da Silva Jan 06 '19 at 17:10
  • It might, but the risks of doing it yourself are large - especially if you don't have the correct tools (and conventional wisdom says you need a clean room also). That is what data recovery specialists do. Also, replacing the external circuit board is not usually a good idea, ad these boards contain maps of your drive. – davidgo Jan 06 '19 at 18:48
  • If your drive data is not worth professional recovery, you might want to risk (and I do mean risk) partial recovery yourself by putting the original board back on, putting the drive in a bag in a freezer and seeing if you can pull data off it using ddrescue. (You may need to do this several times, if it works at all. Really you should have attended to it when it started playing up) – davidgo Jan 06 '19 at 18:51
  • @gabrielFair I call BS on the scanning electron microscope requirement. Normally a clean room, doner drives, desoldering and resoldering chips and specialist diftware is what is required. Scanning electron stuff is mainly theoretical stuff for recovering key data off deleted platters - which might work on ancient drives. – davidgo Jan 06 '19 at 18:55
  • "you will have to pay a lot of money to get a scanning election microscope to scan and recreate your drive" Nonsense, any good recovery company can get the data....https://www.lowcostrecovery.com/ – Moab Jan 06 '19 at 20:48
  • would this work? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NEgMzAtGFg – André Da Silva Jan 07 '19 at 12:56
  • https://superuser.com/questions/1395351/hdd-unknown-not-initialized-no-capacity-no-nothing-but-physically-workin – André Da Silva Jan 17 '19 at 12:12