Is there hope?

JLuchinski

Well-Known Member
So my son knocked over my tower and now all's the hard drive does is click when it's turned on accompanied by a series of short single beeps that won't stop from the mobo. I went out and got a new hd and os so I know the hd was the only thing to get damaged. I have a ton of pictures on there I would like to get back, am I SOL? How much do shops usually charge for this kind of thing? Thanks.
 
If its clicking, thats not a very good sign. A computer shop won't be able to recover data, you will have to send it in to a professional data recovery company to retrieve the data for you. However, it will cost a few hundred dollars if they can retrieve any data at all.
 
Learn the hard lesson and buy a separate storage device to store important data on. I have three hard drives with the data I value on them. I update the data I value at least once every two weeks on at least one other hard drive.
 
Yeah I'm going to get one now. Luckily I had backed up all my pics onto DVD's a few weeks ago and forgot about them.
 
There may still be hope. I recently had a hard drive start clicking on me(not from physical damage like you) and I installed it in an external enclosure and I was able to get all the files off of it. It did not click when installed in the external enclosure.

You could also try a usb to sata/ide adapter cable which also worked with the clicking drive.
 
try this

one trick that is odd but actually works is as follows!

take the hdd out of any enclosure and hook it up to long power/data cables, tape a paper towel in a cylinder/sleeve like thing around the disk and set it in the bottom drawer of your freezer, and close the door on the cables

the low temperatures can help recover data off a failing disk

can't remember where I heard this, hack a day maybe?, but I has worked twice for me and not worked three times. worth a shot though!
hope this helps
 
Yeah I've actually done that before, it worked for a little while. I'm going to get an enclosure first and see if that works, I'm in no rush though the only thing I really cared about were the pictures which I got back.
 
mmhmm, it won't fix the problem or work forever, usually just about twenty min.. long enough to recover data. If you've tried that and it stopped working the drives probably done for

at least you got what you needed though
 
Yeah I was aware that it was only a temporary solution, but a neat one, not to many people would think to freeze there hard drive. I'm kind of glad that it happened though because I was unable to find my Vista restore discs so I went out and got Windows 7, way better.
 
yeah I know!! I usually have to make sure there's someone in the house to watch in awe as i run a bunch of wires out of my freezer and then pull data of a dead disk ;)

Amen to that!!!! Vista was a disgrace! I'm Still primarily XP (work) But I've used both Vista and Win7 at home and Win7 is much nicer!, although there are always a few features in the menu that i can never freaking find :(
 
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