[SOLVED] HDD DEAD (?) ALL OF A SUDDEN

[guino11]

Hey! So I have this external 2.5" HDD that was previously the main disk from my laptop. It's external now as I bought it an enclosure.

I was using this disk for school projects and media and always plugging it and unplugging it and laying it down correctly so that the platters and the heads wouldn't suffer any damage while working.

The last time I used this disk was early 2021 I think and when this disk is stored, it's on a shelf flat without any potential risk.

So this (here's the problem) early July I plugged it into my laptop (MacBook Pro) and I noticed that the enclosure's light wasn't blinking. I replugged it to another port and nothing happened, then I went to Disk Utility and the disk wasn't recognized. Then I tried on my desktop PC and the light was still, it wasn't detected at Disks Administration.

As it wasn't being detected I thought it was the enclosure as it wasn't blinking and the disk wasn't silent (you know after the boot up). So I thought it was an enclosure power problem, but that seemed strange to me so I tried different disks and they were being recognized on both computers.

So I put again the first disk and I decided to listen to it since plugging it in.
What I listened was the exponential sound that the platters (the motor) and the heads make while booting up (the normal process I guess).
But the heads instead of staying idle ready to read/write data, started to do click... ....click... ... click... ... click unless I would disconnect it, and I figured out something was wrong, I searched on the Internet and everything that showed up was (as you can imagine) the click of death.

The noise is quiet, it's not audible unless you approach your ear to it.

So I brought it to a dedicated local repair shop (I explained to them the same I'm doing here) and they told me they couldn't recover the data as it was a mechanical issue.

After this diagnosis, I searched dedicated labs that could help with this issue but before getting in touch with them I'd like to know if an exact mobo swap would make a prompt period of time for me to get back my files. I've seen that it's more common to do nothing but it's more affordable for me before sending it there.

I've thought of this chance because I read online that the disk is trying to boot up but as the motherboard has become faulty it's on a loop trying to do what it used to do, so maybe changing it for an exact one would help.

I've always taken care of it and never fell or got hit. The disk is a Hitachi HGST z5k500-500. HGST is now inside WD.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Bob.B]

Hey! So I have this external 2.5" HDD that was previously the main disk from my laptop. It's external now as I bought it an enclosure.

I was using this disk for school projects and media and always plugging it and unplugging it and laying it down correctly so that the platters and the heads wouldn't suffer any damage while working.

The last time I used this disk was early 2021 I think and when this disk is stored, it's on a shelf flat without any potential risk.

So this (here's the problem) early July I plugged it into my laptop (MacBook Pro) and I noticed that the enclosure's light wasn't blinking. I replugged it to another port and nothing happened, then I went to Disk Utility and the disk wasn't recognized. Then I tried on my desktop PC and the light was still, it wasn't detected at Disks Administration.

As it wasn't being detected I thought it was the enclosure as it wasn't blinking and the disk wasn't silent (you know after the boot up). So I thought it was an enclosure power problem, but that seemed strange to me so I tried different disks and they were being recognized on both computers.

So I put again the first disk and I decided to listen to it since plugging it in.
What I listened was the exponential sound that the platters (the motor) and the heads make while booting up (the normal process I guess).
But the heads instead of staying idle ready to read/write data, started to do click... ....click... ... click... ... click unless I would disconnect it, and I figured out something was wrong, I searched on the Internet and everything that showed up was (as you can imagine) the click of death.

The noise is quiet, it's not audible unless you approach your ear to it.

So I brought it to a dedicated local repair shop (I explained to them the same I'm doing here) and they told me they couldn't recover the data as it was a mechanical issue.

After this diagnosis, I searched dedicated labs that could help with this issue but before getting in touch with them I'd like to know if an exact mobo swap would make a prompt period of time for me to get back my files. I've seen that it's more common to do nothing but it's more affordable for me before sending it there.

I've thought of this chance because I read online that the disk is trying to boot up but as the motherboard has become faulty it's on a loop trying to do what it used to do, so maybe changing it for an exact one would help.

I've always taken care of it and never fell or got hit. The disk is a Hitachi HGST z5k500-500. HGST is now inside WD.

Thanks in advance.

If you have access to a desktop try connecting the hdd using sata.
If that fails and you can get the pcb that's on the hdd try a swap.
Keep in mind the more you use the hdd the more damage might be being done which means if you send it to a recovery house there might be less to recover.

 

[guino11]

If you have access to a desktop try connecting the hdd using sata.
If that fails and you can get the pcb that's on the hdd try a swap.
Keep in mind the more you use the hdd the more damage might be being done which means if you send it to a recovery house there might be less to recover.

Yes I tried plugging it into my desktop PC through SATA and nothing, thanks for the info!