Click Of Death - I'll do anything to get my files back

[LaCalia]

Hey guys. I woke up this morning and my backup drive was making a rhythmic clicking sound. It was in the process of recovering one of my other drives overnight and it failed. Now I can't see it

It makes the same clicking noise for a couple seconds at startup but it stops fairly quickly.

It is extremely important that I get those files back. I'll do anything at any cost.

Thank you for reading.

 

[aquielisunari]

Hey guys. I woke up this morning and my backup drive was making a rhythmic clicking sound. It was in the process of recovering one of my other drives overnight and it failed. Now I can't see it

It makes the same clicking noise for a couple seconds at startup but it stops fairly quickly.

It is extremely important that I get those files back. I'll do anything at any cost.

Thank you for reading.

You already know what happened. Your platter based hard drive has a physical problem. It's nothing a recovery software like Recuva could remedy. File recovery at this point would be very expensive.

I would contact the drive's manufacturer and talk to them about file recovery.

 

[LaCalia]

Hey guys. I woke up this morning and my backup drive was making a rhythmic clicking sound. It was in the process of recovering one of my other drives overnight and it failed. Now I can't see it

It makes the same clicking noise for a couple seconds at startup but it stops fairly quickly.

It is extremely important that I get those files back. I'll do anything at any cost.

Thank you for reading.

You already know what happened. Your platter based hard drive has a physical problem. It's nothing a recovery software like Recuva could remedy. File recovery at this point would be very expensive.

I would contact the drive's manufacturer and talk to them about file recovery.

I just purchased the drive a couple of days ago. Are you suggesting Seagate might recover the files for me?

 

[ss202sl]

Seagate's warranty doesn't cover data loss.
http://www.seagate.com/support/warranty-and-replacements/limited-consumer-warranty/

Your best option would be to send the drive to a data recovery company that can take the drive apart(in a clean room), and pull data off the platters.

 

[aquielisunari]

Hey guys. I woke up this morning and my backup drive was making a rhythmic clicking sound. It was in the process of recovering one of my other drives overnight and it failed. Now I can't see it

It makes the same clicking noise for a couple seconds at startup but it stops fairly quickly.

It is extremely important that I get those files back. I'll do anything at any cost.

Thank you for reading.

You already know what happened. Your platter based hard drive has a physical problem. It's nothing a recovery software like Recuva could remedy. File recovery at this point would be very expensive.

I would contact the drive's manufacturer and talk to them about file recovery.

I just purchased the drive a couple of days ago. Are you suggesting Seagate might recover the files for me?

Yes, and seeing as how this drive is only a few days old I would be more stubborn than an old mule on a Sunday afternoon in July as far as the price is concerned. The price is free because it was a manufacturer's defect that caused your loss. It is their responsibility to make it right and the only way they can do that is by recovering your files.

 

[captaincharisma]

data recovery center fees are in the thousands so the data has to be really important if you're willing to spends tons of money to get it back

 

[BFG-9000]

Sure, they estimate $499 to $2000 for data recovery. If you are within 30 days of purchase you may be eligible to buy a Seagate Rescue Service Plan which includes one attempt at data recovery.

It's worth getting an estimate for the other drive you were copying from too. It may be cheaper, especially because some services will drop most of the charges if they are unable to recover any data. Plus two drives with the same data mean you'd have a 2nd chance to recover it.

Prices have really gone way up as modern drives have become so large!

 

[aquielisunari]

Seagate's warranty doesn't cover data loss.
http://www.seagate.com/support/warranty-and-replacements/limited-consumer-warranty/

Your best option would be to send the drive to a data recovery company that can take the drive apart(in a clean room), and pull data off the platters.

This is true.

Also, consequential damages; incidental damages; and costs related to data recovery, removal, and installation are not recoverable under this warranty.

However their is a human element in this debacle. Consider EVGA. I had to ask for a RMA, received it and then they strayed from their policy in the best of ways. This was due to asking nicely and allowing them to see how wrong their policy was. That's an assumption but regardless those words that are written in stone may not be chiseled in that deep. Of course, the average rep. who has been on the job for a few weeks will be by the book. PERIOD. Just be nice and stubborn(in a good way if that's possible).

 

[aquielisunari]

Hey guys. I woke up this morning and my backup drive was making a rhythmic clicking sound. It was in the process of recovering one of my other drives overnight and it failed. Now I can't see it

It makes the same clicking noise for a couple seconds at startup but it stops fairly quickly.

It is extremely important that I get those files back. I'll do anything at any cost.

Thank you for reading.

And now you know how important backing up your data is. Learn from this issue.

 

[LaCalia]

Hey guys. I woke up this morning and my backup drive was making a rhythmic clicking sound. It was in the process of recovering one of my other drives overnight and it failed. Now I can't see it

It makes the same clicking noise for a couple seconds at startup but it stops fairly quickly.

It is extremely important that I get those files back. I'll do anything at any cost.

Thank you for reading.

You already know what happened. Your platter based hard drive has a physical problem. It's nothing a recovery software like Recuva could remedy. File recovery at this point would be very expensive.

I would contact the drive's manufacturer and talk to them about file recovery.

I just purchased the drive a couple of days ago. Are you suggesting Seagate might recover the files for me?

Yes, and seeing as how this drive is only a few days old I would be more stubborn than an old mule on a Sunday afternoon in July as far as the price is concerned. The price is free because it was a manufacturer's defect that caused your loss. It is their responsibility to make it right and the only way they can do that is by recovering your files.

I'm trying to recover the original data from the original drive. If I don't find anything I'm going to have a chat with Seagate.

 

[LaCalia]

Seagate's warranty doesn't cover data loss.
http://www.seagate.com/support/warranty-and-replacements/limited-consumer-warranty/

Your best option would be to send the drive to a data recovery company that can take the drive apart(in a clean room), and pull data off the platters.

This is true.

Also, consequential damages; incidental damages; and costs related to data recovery, removal, and installation are not recoverable under this warranty.

However their is a human element in this debacle. Consider EVGA. I had to ask for a RMA, received it and then they strayed from their policy in the best of ways. This was due to asking nicely and allowing them to see how wrong their policy was. That's an assumption but regardless those words that are written in stone may not be chiseled in that deep. Of course, the average rep. who has been on the job for a few weeks will be by the book. PERIOD. Just be nice and stubborn(in a good way if that's possible).

I really hope I am as lucky as you were. If they understand the lifetime value of a customer it'd be in their best interest.

 

[mwc104]

I have dealt with the clicking head problem several times. All my "customers" who have had this happen I try every trick in the book to recover the data for them and let them know that the probability of recovering will be near impossible unless they are willing to dish out hundreds to a recovery center, which they don't have much extra cash laying around. When my attempts don't work, I tell them I can take the riskiest approach by opening the drive and resetting the heads to see if they begin working normally again. I've only attempted this on 5 drives and it has worked 2/5 times. Of course, the drive is just on a countdown to death after opening it, but at least I was able to recover the data for those two people.

I don't recommend that to anyone unless you really aren't concerned with the outcome. I'd love to get my hands on some HDD repair tools but don't want to dish out the money for them, especially if I am unable to create a clean room to do it in.

 

[LaCalia]

I was able to recover the original data!! It only took me 10 hours after 2 4-hour-long failed attempts with Seagate's garbage software.

One pass with EaseUS Data Recovery and I'm finally in the clear! I'm calling Seagate tomorrow and getting my money back.

One 4TB Western Digital drive, added to cart. Thanks so much everybody for all your support!!

 

[aquielisunari]

I was able to recover the original data!! It only took me 10 hours after 2 4-hour-long failed attempts with Seagate's garbage software.

One pass with EaseUS Data Recovery and I'm finally in the clear! I'm calling Seagate tomorrow and getting my money back.

One 4TB Western Digital drive, added to cart. Thanks so much everybody for all your support!!

Congrats! I love to see these issues come full circle with a positive solution.

 

[RolandJS]

LaCalla, you did test some of those recovered files to ensure their associated programs will read from and write to those recovered [and copied back to their original place on the internal HD] files?

 

[LaCalia]

LaCalla, you did test some of those recovered files to ensure their associated programs will read from and write to those recovered [and copied back to their original place on the internal HD] files?

No not yet, I'm still going to run one more pass to see if I can find anymore of the files since I was short on time yesterday and I just grabbed the ones that it found within the first 20 minutes (most files were already found by then).

I'll set everything back up after this last pass as soon as I get home and I'll let you all know how it goes!

 

[aquielisunari]

LaCalla, you did test some of those recovered files to ensure their associated programs will read from and write to those recovered [and copied back to their original place on the internal HD] files?

No not yet, I'm still going to run one more pass to see if I can find anymore of the files since I was short on time yesterday and I just grabbed the ones that it found within the first 20 minutes (most files were already found by then).

I'll set everything back up after this last pass as soon as I get home and I'll let you all know how it goes!

You might also try https://www.piriform.com/recuva if EaseUS doesn't satisfy.

 

[LaCalia]

LaCalla, you did test some of those recovered files to ensure their associated programs will read from and write to those recovered [and copied back to their original place on the internal HD] files?

So, unfortunately, I've found that all of the recovered files are corrupt/unreadable.

Any idea what I should do now?

 

[aquielisunari]

LaCalla, you did test some of those recovered files to ensure their associated programs will read from and write to those recovered [and copied back to their original place on the internal HD] files?

So, unfortunately, I've found that all of the recovered files are corrupt/unreadable.

Any idea what I should do now?

Did you try Recuva?

You should not recover the files to the same drive they are being recovered from.

 

[LaCalia]

LaCalla, you did test some of those recovered files to ensure their associated programs will read from and write to those recovered [and copied back to their original place on the internal HD] files?

So, unfortunately, I've found that all of the recovered files are corrupt/unreadable.

Any idea what I should do now?

Did you try Recuva?

You should not recover the files to the same drive they are being recovered from.

I tried Recuva today and I was impressed, however I'm puzzled. Many of the results are unrecoverable and I understand that, but specific one's that I'm looking for are just plain missing. Shouldn't they also just be unrecoverable or is that not how it works? I'm troubled because EaseUS actually found them but they were corrupt. I'm getting pretty frustrated.

 

[aquielisunari]

LaCalla, you did test some of those recovered files to ensure their associated programs will read from and write to those recovered [and copied back to their original place on the internal HD] files?

So, unfortunately, I've found that all of the recovered files are corrupt/unreadable.

Any idea what I should do now?

Did you try Recuva?

You should not recover the files to the same drive they are being recovered from.

I tried Recuva today and I was impressed, however I'm puzzled. Many of the results are unrecoverable and I understand that, but specific one's that I'm looking for are just plain missing. Shouldn't they also just be unrecoverable or is that not how it works? I'm troubled because EaseUS actually found them but they were corrupt. I'm getting pretty frustrated.

Have you tried a deep scan without specifying anything other than everywhere? Maybe a data recovery biz or a call to Seagate(may be more frustrating?) in in order.

 

[LaCalia]

LaCalla, you did test some of those recovered files to ensure their associated programs will read from and write to those recovered [and copied back to their original place on the internal HD] files?

So, unfortunately, I've found that all of the recovered files are corrupt/unreadable.

Any idea what I should do now?

Did you try Recuva?

You should not recover the files to the same drive they are being recovered from.

I tried Recuva today and I was impressed, however I'm puzzled. Many of the results are unrecoverable and I understand that, but specific one's that I'm looking for are just plain missing. Shouldn't they also just be unrecoverable or is that not how it works? I'm troubled because EaseUS actually found them but they were corrupt. I'm getting pretty frustrated.

Have you tried a deep scan without specifying anything other than everywhere? Maybe a data recovery biz or a call to Seagate(may be more frustrating?) in in order.

I think at this point, I'm about to settle for what little data I have recovered. I'd like to be able to use my drive again.

Thanks again for all your time and support!

 

[TMTOWTSAC]

I hope you don't mean continuing to use that backup drive. There is no scenario in which using that drive for important data will turn out well.

 

[alceryes]

Send the drive to DriveSavers. They are THE best at recovering files.
It will cost you though.

 

[LaCalia]

I hope you don't mean continuing to use that backup drive. There is no scenario in which using that drive for important data will turn out well.

No, that drive has been RMA'd already. WD replacement drive on the way.

I meant the original drive, It's healthy and fully functional.