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nexisvi

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Harddrive won't boot, makes clicking noise

My old 40GB harddrive recently started making strange noises, and won't boot up anymore.  I'm positive this is a physical problem with the harddrive.  When I power on my computer, it makes a continous "click click click" noise, similar to the single "click" it makes when it first powers on but the noise keeps going like it's trying to do something but failing.  My bios does not detect the drive anymore ... and when I unplug everything but the power cable going into the drive I still hear the "click click click" sound, which doesn't stop.  I'm afraid the harddrive is pretty much toast, which is fine but I'd like to access a few files on there that didn't make the last backup :-(

I'm not too worried about wrecking the drive, what I'd like to do is get it in a state where I can simply access the files even just for 30 minutes and then I can toss it in the trash.  Does this sound feasible, and if so does anyone have suggestions based on the symptoms I'm describribing?  Maybe I can just crack it open and do something quick and dirty as a bandage solution?  Failing that... does anyone have any experience with inexpensive hardrive repairs, when the problem is physical?  I don't need data recovery, I'm hoping the actual harddrive can be made to work however briefly.  I doubt a place like Future Shop or your local computer store deals with this type of problem.

Thanks in advance...
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jamietoner
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good advice above .
If you want to try to replace the head assy, look here :
http://hddguru.com/content/en/articles/2006.02.17-Changing-headstack-Q-and-A/
The biggest chance you'll get is to follow the freezer advice above, or if you have an exact same drive model (needs to be the same revision number), you can try changing the drive's PCB with that of the good drive. If none of these work, you can't recover the data yourself and you'll have to send it to a data recovery agency, of which gillware gets the best critics, and it isn't even that expensive (of course the "expensive" depends on how important the data is for you)

http://www.gillware.com/
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dooleydog

A long shot, but, you can try freezing it. I know it sounds crazy, but the cold can sometimes make it work for a short period of time. I would suggest making it the second HD and booting from another.

If that doesn't work, I think you are out of luck, unless you have lots of money...

Good Luck,

Everything's been covered, and from your post it sounds as though the data on the drive aren't critical. If that's so, go ahead with the DIY advice given.
If that's not so, don't even think about powering it up. Go with Mr Limo or rindi and send it to the experts.
gillware?  you have to be kidding...

http://www.Drivesavers.com beats 'em all...

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ASKER

Thanks for all the suggestions!  I'm going to try tossing it in the freezer after putting it inside an anti-static bag and see how it goes.  The stuff that's on there which I haven't backed up isn't worth hundreds of dollars to me (sounds like I'm looking at spending at least that much for a professional to fix it for me?) so if this quick-fix works long enough so I can pull things off the disk that'd be amazing =)
freeze it, then either add it as a secondary hdd on another machine or try using an external usb hdd casing and connect it to another machine to try to access it that way.   good luck !
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ASKER

Well I tried placing the drive in the freezer for 30 min after placing it in an anti-static bag and then inside a zip-loc bag (to keep out the moisture), but unfortunately I'm still hearing the dreadful clicking =(  Too bad, I guess there's not much I can do but thanks everyone for the information and great suggestions.