HDD wont initialize

[Jay Lavistria]

A SMART scan told me the disk was dying from...a Start/Stop spin count or something similar.

The Disk appears in Disk Management, as Unallocated. Attempting to Initialize the drive tosses an error about how the Drive...something is out-of-date, and to restart Disk Management or the computer.

Sometimes the HDD completely disappears off the partitions list, but I can still feel it spinning. Windows completely ignores its presence until I restart it, and even then the HDD vanishes after a few minutes. I heard that Windows will stop detecting HDDs after their RPM falls below a certain rate. Hopefully thats not the case.
I knew this disk was dying considering its INCREDIBLY loud arm movement, like it was a printer.
Is there any way for me as a normal person to somehow recover this drive?
Or will I have to send it to somewhere like SalvageData for a professional fix.

 

[MarkW]

If you got a warning that it was dying, and then it died, there is not much that can be done now. If the data that was on that drive is important to you, you should have been doing backups all along. Electronics will fail. It is not if it fails, it is when will it fail. Never ever have a system where there is important data that is not being backed up at least weekly. One copy should be kept onsite, and a second copy should be kept off-site.

Now to recovery... If Windows will not access the drive, then sending it out to have the data recovered is about all that is left. Do not be surprised if they cannot recover everything. In fact, be amazed at every little bit they can recover.

Data recover does not come cheap though. Be prepared for that.

 

[lantrich]

If the disk still spins you may be able to recover the information on the drive. You are going to have to get another drive and load windows. Then look online for a data recovery program. I understand there are some free ones out there. One should be able to see the drive even though windows doesn't. I bought EASUS master for $40 and it has a recovery option.

 

[Jay Lavistria]

If you got a warning that it was dying, and then it died, there is not much that can be done now. If the data that was on that drive is important to you, you should have been doing backups all along. Electronics will fail. It is not if it fails, it is when will it fail. Never ever have a system where there is important data that is not being backed up at least weekly. One copy should be kept onsite, and a second copy should be kept off-site.

Now to recovery... If Windows will not access the drive, then sending it out to have the data recovered is about all that is left. Do not be surprised if they cannot recover everything. In fact, be amazed at every little bit they can recover.

Data recover does not come cheap though. Be prepared for that.

Thing is, it seems to have been triggered by a Sleep mode my PC went to.
Partition recovery software detects the data inside the drive but cannot bring the drive itself to a working state.
Is it possible to somehow copy every bit on the HDD platter, and paste it to a new drive, and access it that way?
Is there such a program that doesnt require windows to exactly give it a drive letter, but can access the drive data as long as Windows knows its plugged in?

 

[MarkW]

The less time the drive is under the control of Windows at this point, the better. Windows is always looking to write something out to the hard drive, even when you do not think it would be, and now that it sees most of that drive as free space....

Read this, it will explain things in far more detail than I could...

http://lifehacker.com/5982339/diy-data-recovery-tricks-for-when-your-hard-drive-goes-belly-up