[SOLVED] Internal Seagate HDD failing, need to find the right solution

[ericbye1222]

I've been using the same self built computer for years, but more recently installed the Windows OS onto a new SSD to speed up booting and such. I have 2 HDDs and one of them is still working fine but a couple days ago my large (2TB) Seagate Barracuda has stopped working. Whenever I try to boot my computer with it plugged in at all, I get stuck on the Loading Windows screen with the logo pulsing. I can boot the computer just fine with it unplugged. I have tried to hot port it in after boot, but that seems to slow processing to a halt, not allowing me to run say, SeaTools for a diagnosis. When I do hot port it in, it does show up in My Computer, but with no storage info and no access to the files. I mainly used this HDD to store files, be it pictures, videos, digital work for college, or a pretty expansive digital movie collection. While getting all the files back is not a priority, there are many many files on here that I would hate to have to recreate, find, or download. Any time it is powered it does make a noise every 30 seconds or so, though I'm not sure I'd call it a "click" like I've seen described in other posts and forums.

So if I want to recover data from this drive, whats the best way? Should I image the drive and then try and copy the files? Should I get a USB adapter and try and pull files that way? I am very new to things like Linux so I'm hoping to avoid having to boot Linux and run ddrescue. I can provide additional information if needed, but please help with any tutorial or walkthrough, I want to save some data before wiping it and starting over if at all possible.

 

[USAFRet]

If you can image it in any way, that is by far the preferable way forward.
The more you mess with that physical drive, the closer it is to total fail.

Assuming it can be accessed, something like Macrium Reflect will do an image of the whole drive. Even a forensic image of ALL sectors, damaged or not.
Then, you can mount that image as a drive letter and possibly extract what you need. Maybe.

However, this only counts if the software can see it. It may be too far gone.
And this is a usual occurrence. People don't think about actual backups until about 5 minutes after they actually need it.