(Mac) Can i recover this myself?

[MJ98]

Hi there,

I have used File Salvage before with success and i was hoping for some advice...

My partners laptop HDD died a couple of months back. Today i took it out and put a new one in, perfect. I plugged in the old HDD via an enclosure to salvage it and it didn't register in disk utility. The enclosure is wobbly, cheap and crap but i think its more likely the HDD. I held it to my ear and could hear repetitive clicking.

After this i thought fine i'll go to the external backup first and restore all her data. Plugged it in and it didn't register in disk utility... Held it to my ear? Clicking.

My partner cried a lot when we lost 1.5 weeks of photos from a holiday 6 years ago. I'm potentially about to lose a year of photos travelling australia. I cannot bear to have to tell her it's all gone and a professional salvage is probably too expensive for me. Amazingly i was just about to create a third back up when i had changed the drives out.

Is there anyway i can try and recover this myself? I'm wary of damaging the hard drive more and definitely losing everything but i will try ANYTHING that isn't that high risk.

Please any advice would be appreciated.

 

[ChaoticWolf]

Hello,

Unfortunately, I hate to say, but it doesn't seem like there's much you can do
I mean, the hard drive is clicking, and when a hard drive clicks then that's definitely not good and is close to quit working or already doesn't work, there's not much you can do yourself to it
If I were you, I wouldn't touch the drive and mess with it any further, and just get a professional to do the work to try and recover it
If photos from 6 years ago from a holiday and a year of photos travelling to australia is VERY important to you guys, I would go to a professional company to recover for you, it's expensive but it's worth the money if the files on that drive are that important to you

I'm sorry that this happened to you. It's never a good experience to have to have years worth of files all gone in a blink of an eye because of a broken drive. Just see if you know someone that you know that can do it for you that doesn't charge you for it, or just give it to a company. Once again, if the files are worth lots to you guys, then I guess it's worth the money. It's now or never :/ Best of luck to you guys

 

[MJ98]

Hello,

Unfortunately, I hate to say, but it doesn't seem like there's much you can do
I mean, the hard drive is clicking, and when a hard drive clicks then that's definitely not good and is close to quit working or already doesn't work, there's not much you can do yourself to it
If I were you, I wouldn't touch the drive and mess with it any further, and just get a professional to do the work to try and recover it
If photos from 6 years ago from a holiday and a year of photos travelling to australia is VERY important to you guys, I would go to a professional company to recover for you, it's expensive but it's worth the money if the files on that drive are that important to you

I'm sorry that this happened to you. It's never a good experience to have to have years worth of files all gone in a blink of an eye because of a broken drive. Just see if you know someone that you know that can do it for you that doesn't charge you for it, or just give it to a company. Once again, if the files are worth lots to you guys, then I guess it's worth the money. It's now or never :/ Best of luck to you guys

Thanks for your reply. I feared but assumed this would be the case. As soon as i heard clicking i unplugged them both and have not touched them since and figured there would be no safe way to use them again without them being disassembled and recovered.

I've just been getting quotes and whilst there are some reviews online i was wondering if anyone has any experiences with any companies that they would recommend? Just want to make extra sure i'm using someone i can trust.

Thanks

 

[MJ98]

Sorry for the double post but just to add:

Has anyone had any personal experiences with any of these companies?

DTL Data Recovery
Xytron Data Recovery
PC Image Data Recovery
TRC Data Recovery
Cambridge Data Recovery

Thanks

 

[hang-the-9]

Sometimes a drive would click if there is not enough power going to it from the external enclosure. That is outside of any physical issues that is, it may still be dead. If the enclosure you are using only has a single USB connection, try using a dual head USB cable that would provide extra power. That would at least rule out any issues with the enclosure.

 

[MJ98]

Sometimes a drive would click if there is not enough power going to it from the external enclosure. That is outside of any physical issues that is, it may still be dead. If the enclosure you are using only has a single USB connection, try using a dual head USB cable that would provide extra power. That would at least rule out any issues with the enclosure.

Whilst i don't have a dual USB right now so will have to get one to try this, i have used the enclosure about a year ago with a different hard drive and it worked fine. With this in mind, should i still try it again with a dual USB?

Thanks

 

[hang-the-9]

Sometimes a drive would click if there is not enough power going to it from the external enclosure. That is outside of any physical issues that is, it may still be dead. If the enclosure you are using only has a single USB connection, try using a dual head USB cable that would provide extra power. That would at least rule out any issues with the enclosure.

Whilst i don't have a dual USB right now so will have to get one to try this, i have used the enclosure about a year ago with a different hard drive and it worked fine. With this in mind, should i still try it again with a dual USB?

Thanks

You said you have two drives, and both click in it correct? So yes you should try the dual USB for more power, or a different enclosure, or try the drives in a computer directly on a SATA port as a secondary drive to see if they are read.

 

[ChaoticWolf]

Yeah you should do that, sometimes it just needs some more power that's all, but if nothing else works its probably done