Locked External Hard Drive issue

[Imran Hashmi]

Hi there,

I need help on my WD 4TB external HDD. Yesterday, I was trying to copy-paste new files & delete some older files and suddenly my external HDD making noise like... Click, Click..... & then stop. I restart my PC to avoid any issues & bang... HDD disappeared.

Also, while copying data I was continuously getting an error & copy automatically stopped. (I had neglected those error & proceed further).

I called service center they said, we never repair any HDD, only replacement if it is comes under warranty. (Sadly... It's out of warranty ).

Then I called Data Recovery Center & they are going to charged more than new HDD (Ofc they know my situation, how badly I want my data back).

After lost all hopes, I searched on YT & found a guy who shown how to fix "Click Click" noise & recover HDD.

HOW TO FIX EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE CLICKING, BEEPING, BUZZING ? Uploaded by Quick & Easy​

As I'm completely noob for this, don't want to take any risk. Please find below screenshot. Any solution always welcome.

You must be registered for see links

You must be registered for see links

You must be registered for see links

You must be registered for see links

 

[ZeLimB]

my external HDD making noise like... Click, Click..... & then stop

Personally, I think your disc is out of stock, you should make an exchange with the after-sales service, if you still have a guarantee,
in general when it clicks clicks it is a sign of a dead disc, or you start the tutorial that you have in the description. try to do it with an old hard drive to train yourself ...
there is always a beginning to everything ^^

good luck

 

[parvinder 2018]

Your hdd is dead. No fix

 

[Richard_dn]

sorry i cant help with your problem but i would suggest you put photos on a offline drive
to help avoid loss due to ransomware or other and only mount disk when going to use photos

 

[Imran Hashmi]

Personally, I think your disc is out of stock, you should make an exchange with the after-sales service, if you still have a guarantee,
in general when it clicks clicks it is a sign of a dead disc, or you start the tutorial that you have in the description. try to do it with an old hard drive to train yourself ...
there is always a beginning to everything ^^

good luck

Yeah. Since there is no option, will try by myself. Thanks!

Your hdd is dead. No fix

Will fight till end of last breath. Thanks!

sorry i cant help with your problem but i would suggest you put photos on a offline drive
to help avoid loss due to ransomware or other and only mount disk when going to use photos

There were no virus on my HDD. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[user7]

Sounds like physical damage, as a last resort search ( how to fix a physically broken hard drive on wikihow).....all the best.

 

[Yash Dedhia]

If your data is too sensitive & imp i would suggest get it done by data recovery specialist it will be expensive but as said.. its imp for your data.. if its still being detected but not opening.. you can try to check with hiren boot or winpe if you are lucky enough

 

[Imran Hashmi]

Sounds like physical damage, as a last resort search ( how to fix a physically broken hard drive on wikihow).....all the best.

Thanks! Will try.

If your data is too sensitive & imp i would suggest get it done by data recovery specialist it will be expensive but as said.. its imp for your data.. if its still being detected but not opening.. you can try to check with hiren boot or winpe if you are lucky enough

Yes. This would be my last option. Thanks mate.

 

[fantom]

Click click noise usually means that a "HD heads" have problem to find "cylinders" on HD. That means that heads cant find logical structure of the disc, hence can't read and write.
There is few method to take data from that HD, but all of them ask to have another HD which size must be bigger then amount of data which You expect that are on damaged HD.

Firstly, I will try with Hiren boot or Sergei Strelec Win-pe and use Active Partition Recovery, or partition guru or HD sentinel. Open external HD enclosure, and connect HD directly to sata cable.

Next method is to find same HD as Your damaged HD and exchange electronic plate /also few screws/.

Last solution is to physically "open" HD /few screws/ and manually move "hand with heads" to inner position. Then connect that HD and other backup HD where You shall copy data. After that, do not use that HD coz, dust shall do its job.

Hope its help

 

[choli]

Unfortunately, physical damage can't be fixed.
The cheapest solution would buy a new HDD.
And if your files came from the internet and you want desperately have them, just redownload everything.
Otherwise, just let it go.

For any sensitive data, prepare money.
A LOT of money for restoring them.
Go to any professional data restore.

 

[ZeLimB]

an HD is like a vinyl record player its arm reads the grooves, if the read head diamond is damaged, the grooves are not read ....
and vice versa if the grooves are damaged the read head will not read them ^^

 

[Cyler]

Hi, my good friend. Sorry to hear about your issue. Your problem is hardware, not software-related (I know you guessed that much) and so no software can really help. Ignore any advice that is software-related. At best they will do nothing, worst case they will damage the disk even more.

What is the problem?
The heads try to move and fail or crash (which is why it's called a head crash). The constant retries and fails of the heads to move or them hitting at the disk platters or the parking area produces the click-click you hear. Think of it something like the image below. Each head movement is a click sound.

First of all, it's important to stop trying. There is a case that the head just got stuck but there can be a case that the head is traveling across the plate surface and scratching it, corrupting more data with each try. Based on the controller, when the disk detects bad sectors, it tries to relocate them which can make the problem worse.

The Data repair professionals don't charge you more because they know you need your data, they charge more because the process is expensive and time-consuming for them too. They need a cleanroom (dustless), specialized tools, and controllers, often they will buy spare parts or even the same exact disk as you have, to use as a replacement, and it can take hours if not days to recover as they need to perform the data recovery slow so not to push the disks hardware. On top of that, they need specialized knowledge, as often they have to bypass the probably faulty partition tables and manually rebuild the file system chains or master file tables or even search sector by sector to get the files and data back. Believe me, not an easy job... speaking from experience.

So if your data is valuable, you have to pay. If not... That's about the only real chance you have when it comes to head crashes.

Now, if you decided NOT to go on a specialist, and you are about the through the disk out of the window, there are a couple of things you can try, that may offer a few minutes to few hours of disk time, depending on the underlying issue the disk has. Sadly other than the "tick tick" you described, I dont have any other info so I can't be sure which kind of problem your disk has. In any case, you need to remove the disk from the USB enclosure and connect it to a PC straight. If that is not possible you still need to open the enclosure but you can use the USB connector. The things I write below are more voodoo than an exact science, and they have their use for only a specific type of problem, but if you have nothing to lose...

Spoiler: Not for the faint of heart. Don't try this at home

Just so we all speak the same language. These are the main parts of a hard disk:

No1: If it's a simple head glitch hitting the disk to a table a couple of times, might help the actuator and heads unstuck for just long enough. Disconnect the disk (no power), hold it vertically, and hit the desk with the corner of the disk 2-3 times. Not too hard, not too soft either. Reconnect and see what happens.

No2: Wrap the disk with aluminum foil (several layers) and place it in a deep freezer for a couple of hours, or a fridge for several hours (about 6-8). Make sure there are no openings. The reason is that cold, helps contract (shrink) the metals, and in some rare cases can help unglitch the heads. After you remove it from the fridge, make sure there are no water droplets on the surface of the logic board. Connect and remember you may only have few minutes. Grab the small and valuable files first.

No3. If you have the tools, make/find a small plexiglass box that can fit your hands, cables and the disk, clean it very well, place the disk in and open it and then power it on. Try VERY GENTLY with a small screw to push the actuator/heads out of the locked position without touching ANYTHING ELSE. If you see the surface of the platters is scratched, abandon all hope.

No4. Pray to whatever god you believe

Sorry I can't be more of a help, and I know it's late now, but lesson learned. BACKUP and mostly on the cloud or to another disk on the network.

Best of luck.

 

[Charles]

If you can't afford the services of a reputable data recovery business, like DriveSavers, but you still want to give it a go yourself, just know that, you'll probably do more damage than good.
That being said, sometimes, it is worth the risk, vs paying out 3 to 10 grand for a data recovery company to do it.
if the drive can be removed from its factory shell, and if it has a sata interface, you can attempt to hook it up, directly to your Motherboard, after you shut down the machine, of course. This will speed up the data transfer, and remove the possibility of a defective Sata to USB controller in the external drive.
Now, you'll have to use linux, and the dd recovery program. Fun stuff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMoIuLCfLE

 

[Imran Hashmi]

Thank you all for your help. I know it's very hard to attempt/recover entire date (which I don't need it.). The only thing is store on HDD is my personal files like... entire school, college, university certificates, marksheet, office joining & relieving letter, etc.... I used this HDD as my back up & sadly I deleted those docs from my internal HDD. Rest all are SW & Games which I can download any times from anywhere.

I made a blunder to delete those files from my internal HDD hence, I feel remorse. I have no option to make a deal with data recovery professionals.

Thank you again my friends, will try my best & then will reach out to the Date expert professional.

 

[SydneyM]

Just one suggestion. Try booting from a linux-based Clonezilla or R-Drive Image USB, if you badly need your data back. Otherwise as it has been pointed out above, it is goodbye for the hard drive. It is quite possible that you overfilled the drive past the Windows "red" mark line. Happened to my son sometime ago. Those two programs are usually free. Do a Google search and give it a last go. Have another disk big enough connected for the "image" transfer.

Hi, my good friend. Sorry to hear about your issue. Your problem is hardware, not software-related (I know you guessed that much) and so no software can really help. Ignore any advice that is software-related. At best they will do nothing, worst case they will damage the disk even more.

What is the problem?
The heads try to move and fail or crash (which is why it's called a head crash). The constant retries and fails of the heads to move or them hitting at the disk platters or the parking area produces the click-click you hear. Think of it something like the image below. Each head movement is a click sound.

First of all, it's important to stop trying. There is a case that the head just got stuck but there can be a case that the head is traveling across the plate surface and scratching it, corrupting more data with each try. Based on the controller, when the disk detects bad sectors, it tries to relocate them which can make the problem worse.

The Data repair professionals don't charge you more because they know you need your data, they charge more because the process is expensive and time-consuming for them too. They need a cleanroom (dustless), specialized tools, and controllers, often they will buy spare parts or even the same exact disk as you have, to use as a replacement, and it can take hours if not days to recover as they need to perform the data recovery slow so not to push the disks hardware. On top of that, they need specialized knowledge, as often they have to bypass the probably faulty partition tables and manually rebuild the file system chains or master file tables or even search sector by sector to get the files and data back. Believe me, not an easy job... speaking from experience.

So if your data is valuable, you have to pay. If not... That's about the only real chance you have when it comes to head crashes.

Now, if you decided NOT to go on a specialist, and you are about the through the disk out of the window, there are a couple of things you can try, that may offer a few minutes to few hours of disk time, depending on the underlying issue the disk has. Sadly other than the "tick tick" you described, I dont have any other info so I can't be sure which kind of problem your disk has. In any case, you need to remove the disk from the USB enclosure and connect it to a PC straight. If that is not possible you still need to open the enclosure but you can use the USB connector. The things I write below are more voodoo than an exact science, and they have their use for only a specific type of problem, but if you have nothing to lose...

Spoiler: Not for the faint of heart. Don't try this at home

Just so we all speak the same language. These are the main parts of a hard disk:

No1: If it's a simple head glitch hitting the disk to a table a couple of times, might help the actuator and heads unstuck for just long enough. Disconnect the disk (no power), hold it vertically, and hit the desk with the corner of the disk 2-3 times. Not too hard, not too soft either. Reconnect and see what happens.

No2: Wrap the disk with aluminum foil (several layers) and place it in a deep freezer for a couple of hours, or a fridge for several hours (about 6-8). Make sure there are no openings. The reason is that cold, helps contract (shrink) the metals, and in some rare cases can help unglitch the heads. After you remove it from the fridge, make sure there are no water droplets on the surface of the logic board. Connect and remember you may only have few minutes. Grab the small and valuable files first.

No3. If you have the tools, make/find a small plexiglass box that can fit your hands, cables and the disk, clean it very well, place the disk in and open it and then power it on. Try VERY GENTLY with a small screw to push the actuator/heads out of the locked position without touching ANYTHING ELSE. If you see the surface of the platters is scratched, abandon all hope.

No4. Pray to whatever god you believe

Sorry I can't be more of a help, and I know it's late now, but lesson learned. BACKUP and mostly on the cloud or to another disk on the network.

Best of luck.

I like solution No. 2. It has saved me a few times.

 

[Mr. MacT]

@Imran Hashmi Sorry for your lost about your photos, files etc of your life. I don't repeat like others suggested already I would encourage try out data recovery specialists.
If you only deleted those files on internal hard drives it's pretty good possible to recover them back with Sergei Strelec PE etc or use any kind data recovery software from here in forum.
EDIT:
I meant data recovery software what you find on Sergei Strelec PE or any other and you find more modified version on here in forum made by member.
Also start using Hard Disk Sentinel Pro what you can get here or buy it or get it on Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Reason I suggesting it can save time and save your data going fully corrupted by software or hardware level.

 

[Asimov]

When a hard drive is "clicking", the step motor (the engine that moves the read/write heads) is damaged. The only thing you can do is to send the drive to a recovery laboratory. They use another case (the same as your drive) and put the aluminum platter inside to recover your files.

 

[KCPTECH]

When you begin to audible clicks from your hard Drive, that’s usually a sign of Mechanical failure.

Data Recovery from Hardware Failure is still possible though.

Does a Program like Crystal Disk Info see your drive in question through the USB controller?

This program will access the Drive’s (whether HDD, SSD, or M2) BIOS and read everything. Usage, Age, Firmware, Read Counts, Sector Info, Error locations, etc. External USB drives usually have no warranty on the drive itself as well as use the cheapest drive and enclosure to keep costs low.

Ideally, DATA storage should fall on Enterprise or Network Drives.

WD Diags and Seagate’s Seatools doesn’t always read defective drives too well.

If the drive enclosure (WD Elements 25A1) is out of Warranty, you can attempt to Medicines it open and remove the drive and attach it to a docking bay or onto an empty SATA head in the case. However, if you’re asking what noises from a drive mean, then this mechanical intervention may not be advisable as it will require some advanced computer hardware knowledge.

Data recovery can be done with various utilities, however, they have limitations to certain enclosures. Also, recovering DATA from drives from GPT partitions can take a great deal of time when compared to MFT partitions.

 

[Imran Hashmi]

I'm glad to inform you that my HDD is recovered. Thanks to all of you who gave me excellent suggestions. You may be think, How??? I just tried simple trick which is found on google. Trust me, It's more than miracle.

First I tried to uninstall drive from Device Manager then I restart system. HDD were attached to the system while restart.

Then I tried to check is drive showing into the boot menu or not? Yes, it was showing. I just save boot setting & restart. To boot normally It took 3+ hours. And.............. "my happiness knows no bounds"

You must be registered for see links

You must be registered for see links

But, time to change HDD. Again thanks thanks to all of you who support me on this disaster . Mods, now you can closed this thread.

Love you TeamOS. TeamOS Forever!!!