toshiba external hdd, motor spins, then a clicks. not read by pc or laptop

[sixxxstringsting]

I have a toshiba external hdd, it worked perfect for the 1st month, now when it is plugged in, you can here the motor spin, then a clicking sound... after couple minutes, a "beeping" sound. it is not being read by the pc or laptop. I do have files on it that were transfered to this hdd as storage. that i need and cannot access.. any help appreciated

 

[mironso]

I have a toshiba external hdd, it worked perfect for the 1st month, now when it is plugged in, you can here the motor spin, then a clicking sound... after couple minutes, a "beeping" sound. it is not being read by the pc or laptop. I do have files on it that were transfered to this hdd as storage. that i need and cannot access.. any help appreciated

From what I have read, your hdd is dead. There is companies that can harvest your data, but it would be expensive a lot.

 

[rieverjohn]

probably too late for an answer but I think Adept is correct, the clicking sound is the read write heads banging against the side of the motor enclosure, being unable to read correct data or none from the disk surface. the heads should read positioning data from the platters and they travel across the platter surface at high speed, continuing to search until they hit the "stop", hence the click. Don't know of a fix.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, sixxxstringsting!

@mironso and @rieverjohn are totally right! The clicking sounds usually indicate an internal physical damage on the drive. Unfortunately, mechanical hard drives are rather sensitive and it's possible for them to get damaged even during the shipping. Since your external is relatively new, I'd strongly advise you to contact its manufacturer's customer support and let them know about your issues with it. It's most definitely still covered by the warranty, so you should be able to send an RMA and get a replacement from them.
If you do need your data back as well, they might also be able to refer you to a professional data recovery company. Attempting that yourself is certainly not recommended when you're dealing with physically damaged HDD.

Good luck! Hope we were helpful!
SuperSoph_WD