Hard Drive Buzzing

[nawtwrong]

I stupidly knocked my external hard drive off the desk while it was running. It fell about 2ft onto a wooden floor.

As the drive was still plugged in and connected to the computer I firstly checked one of the already opened folders which seemed ok, but I couldn't access individual files correctly.

I immediately turned the drive off and waited a couple of minutes. When I plugged it back in I just got a buzzing noise so again I turned it off straight away.

I think the head ight be stuck or something which would account for the strange noise. I've tried tapping the top of the drive to 'dislodge' it with no success.

I've heard that putting the hard drive in a freezer for about half an hour might do the trick, any ideas?

The drive is still under warranty so if I did freeze it would the manufacturer be able to tell when I RMA it?

Anyone got any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance

 

[The_Other_One]

I've heard that putting the hard drive in a freezer for about half an hour might do the trick, any ideas?

Um...who told you that?

If you can't access your data, there's a pretty good chance the drive's toast... You can try to RMA it, but obviously, they won't do anything if/when they find out you dropped it.

 

[nawtwrong]

I've seen on several sites and been told by various people that putting a non working drive in the freezer can get it working again long enough to get the data off it, something to do with shrinking moving parts that might be causing the head to stick. Anyone had any experience with this?

I'm not planning on telling the manufacturer what happened when I RMA it, I'll simply say "It stopped working".

I was just wondering if anyone knew any ways to get the drive working again, surely it can be done.

I really want to get some of the data off it before I RMA it.