Hard disk failure

[nisha081]

I have a failed hard disk. When I connect my external hard disk, it clicks or rotates 6 times and then spins down. My computer cannot detect the disk. I have tried connecting to 2 different machines and no luck. I also tried to open the hard disk to see if the head is stuck, and it is not. What could be wrong with my disk? I would love to retrieve the data from this disk but not spend an arm and a leg with a lab.

 

[Puff3r]

If you actually physically opened the drive and exposed the platters you will never get anything off of it without a lab.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the TH community, nisha081!

Unfortunately, @Puff3r is right! 🙁 If you have cracked the HDD open, I doubt there's any way for you to detect it, let alone access the data on it. When there is a physical damage present on a hard drive, it's highly unlikely you'd be able to retrieve anything by yourself. Sadly, data recovery is rarely a 100 % successful even with a professional assistance. My recommendation is to always keep your data stored on at least two different storage devices/drives in the future. This is the best way to avoid the data loss headaches and expenses.
When operating on a physically damaged drive, you'd need a dust-free environment that would not harm the mechanical parts and a lot of technical knowledge.

I'm sorry but I think that a data recovery service is your best bet at retrieving the files. 🙁
Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD