Seagate ST2000DM001 Clicking Sound head crash or read/write issue

[vsaraf]

So, 3 days back my secondary hard drive having a ton of photos and other documents that I need went missing from "My computer". I panicked a bit and restarted the system several times to no avail. The disk would not show in BIOS either. I opened the box and switched the power and sata cables thinking they must have gone out and still no luck. I unhooked my drive and connected it using a spare enclosure I had lying around which is when I heard the tiny "clicking" noise coming out of my hard drive. It sounds exactly like the one in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx6GNejwjn4

My question is that is there any way one of the freezing/whacking method work on this? Also, if I keep turning it On/off is there a risk of scratching the platters? Just today, while playing around with it using the enclosure at different angles and Hard Disk Sentinel, the disk started spinning without clicks and showed up magically for a few minutes with a 5% health. But the moment, I started copying some stuff off of it, it went dead again.

Any help at all is appreciated.

 

[TyrOd]

So, 3 days back my secondary hard drive having a ton of photos and other documents that I need went missing from "My computer". I panicked a bit and restarted the system several times to no avail. The disk would not show in BIOS either. I opened the box and switched the power and sata cables thinking they must have gone out and still no luck. I unhooked my drive and connected it using a spare enclosure I had lying around which is when I heard the tiny "clicking" noise coming out of my hard drive. It sounds exactly like the one in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx6GNejwjn4

My question is that is there any way one of the freezing/whacking method work on this? Also, if I keep turning it On/off is there a risk of scratching the platters? Just today, while playing around with it using the enclosure at different angles and Hard Disk Sentinel, the disk started spinning without clicks and showed up magically for a few minutes with a 5% health. But the moment, I started copying some stuff off of it, it went dead again.

Any help at all is appreciated.

No freezing doesn't work for modern drives, hitting the drive never worked and was a last ditch effort to un-stick seized heads and power cycling the drive will cause more damage every single time you do it. Nobody can help you except a professional clean room lab at this point.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, vsaraf.

As @TyrOd has already mentioned hitting, freezing or any of those "alternative" troubleshooting methods won't work. You might try accessing the drive with Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if it can be properly recognized and if you can get to your data. Note that this is a pretty long shot especially when there's a mechanical issue. And to answer your other question - yes, if there's a mechanical issue of some sort, the first priority should always be data recovery. This is because i most cases, the more you use the drive, the greater is the chance of further damaging it. So yes, it's possible to scratch and damage the platters. That's why diagnostics tools and scans are never recommended in cases like this one. Go with a data recovery company as @TyrOd has suggested.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD