Hi, I just had something really odd happen to my main OS hard drive this evening. I'm running Windows XP. The drive is a WD Raptor, the 74 Gb version that was bought in January 2007. I'm sitting on the sofa having a beer with my buddy. The computer was on in the meantime playing some music. We used it a couple of times during the evening. Then, when I went over a little later to change the music, I heard a sound from the hard drive (that working sound when it's accessing files or running programs, just slightly more intense than usual) and everything froze. So I press the reset button and rebooted. Now, Windows doesn't start loading, the screen is just black after the hard drive is accessed. I hear a soft sound so I put my head next to the computer because the case is open. I hear a constant ci-click ci-click ci-click repeating over and over. It doesn't sound like the typical click of death that people describe, it's softer, more like a cross between hard drive accessing or a small pin against plastic or thin metal. It's probably useless to describe the sound, but it leads me to think there's a mechanical problem with the drive. BIOS recognizes the drive. The Ubuntu live CD I tried in order to see if I could copy my files also recognizes the drive, but I can't access it and it seems to be stuck in that clicking loop. So I let the thing cool down for a while and try it again, this time I get to the Windows loading screen, but then the clicking starts and Windows never loads. I'm stuck on the screen with that blue bar just scrolling endlessly.
I've been lucky with hard drives up till now and have very little experience with data recovery on failing drives. In spite of that, I'm usually good about backing up my files, but I've just got back from a trip and haven't gotten all the latest stuff backed up. I will need to somehow get these pictures off the drive before I toss it. I was going to freeze the drive in the fridge, but I wanted to check with the experts first. I doubt that will even work, it seems I'll have to replace part of the hard drive to get my data. Or, rather, I'll be paying a lot of money to get my data. Do you guys have any suggestions?
EDIT: Edited thread title a bit
I've been lucky with hard drives up till now and have very little experience with data recovery on failing drives. In spite of that, I'm usually good about backing up my files, but I've just got back from a trip and haven't gotten all the latest stuff backed up. I will need to somehow get these pictures off the drive before I toss it. I was going to freeze the drive in the fridge, but I wanted to check with the experts first. I doubt that will even work, it seems I'll have to replace part of the hard drive to get my data. Or, rather, I'll be paying a lot of money to get my data. Do you guys have any suggestions?
EDIT: Edited thread title a bit