WD MyBook Essential Edition 250GB - Means of recovery ?

[Larry]

I have a My Book Essential Edition 250GB.
Yesterday somebody dropped it on the floor by accident.
When I tried to hook it up to my computer, the drive fired up and suddenly gave me 3 clicks, pause and then another 3 clicks.

I disassembled the external hdd and tried hooking it up to my computer (power supply only) and it still gave me the clicking.


I really need the data on the harddrive.

Can anyone pinpoint the problem and tell me how I could possible recover my data?


Thanks in advance,


Larry

 

[Gareth]

Sounds like the heads of the hard disk drive crashed into the platters. I don't know of any way of recovery, but if the heads did crash into the platters, I doubt there is a way to fix it.

 

[PC eye]

Dropping a hard drive and now hearing clicking is disaster period! You would now have to bring or send the drive into a professional data recovery service for a good beefy price tag for them to recover what they could. For that you supply them with another drive or blank media.

Hard drives are like ornaments you put on a tree rather delicate. You can be sure the drive is toast after seeing it dropped.

 

[Vizy]

o dude that SUX!!! and if u really need the data on that...make the person who dropped it put the 1K it takes to proffesionally recover the data of it...man!!! thats a burn!!!

 

[PC eye]

It's a little awkward if that just happened to be a family member who had a clumsy day and just happened to bump into it to see it fall off of a desk. You're right about one thing there however about it stinking royally since a pro service may charge an arm and a leg!

Here I have one set where it can't fall while still leaving some air space for ventilation. Then take a look at the pocket sized Passport models also available for use with laptops. Walk along and one falls out of your pocket...? "my drive!" !

 

[Pretorius]

My MyBook has been doing exactly the same thing; clicking three times, pausing, then clicking three more times. But mine wasn't dropped at all.

Are you guys sure there's nothing simple that can be done to get it to connect to Windows again...?

 

[PC eye]

My MyBook has been doing exactly the same thing; clicking three times, pausing, then clicking three more times. But mine wasn't dropped at all.

Are you guys sure there's nothing simple that can be done to get it to connect to Windows again...?

The clicking sound heard on a drive generally points to the arms for the heads bumping into the main spindle for the platters. With usb drives in particular if the drive is still good but not seen while still seeing the original Fat32 factory partition unplug and replug the usb cable while in Windows to see if a simple redetection will start the auto run and installer.

 

[SirKenin]

The click-click-click sound you hear is because a portion of the drive surface is damaged and the heads can't read it, or it's a head crash. The clearance between the head and the platter is less than that of a human hair. A piece of dust will jam it. When you dropped it you jarred the heads. Best case scenario you *may* be able to warm it up for 20 minutes, then try it. However, if your data is *really* important to you I don't suggest you mess with it, rather send it to a data recovery facility immediately before you do more damage. Crashed heads will rub the coating off the platter, and then you'll never recover the data.

 

[Pretorius]

The clicking sound heard on a drive generally points to the arms for the heads bumping into the main spindle for the platters. With usb drives in particular if the drive is still good but not seen while still seeing the original Fat32 factory partition unplug and replug the usb cable while in Windows to see if a simple redetection will start the auto run and installer.

I just picked up the drive and shook the shit out of it and gave it a few thumps and now Windows is seeing it again.



Instead of a clicking I'm hearing a scraping sound when it's loading. I guess I'll be moving all my stuff off it pronto.

 

[SirKenin]

bumping into the spindle? ZOMG you can't be serious.. It's amazing the number of people that hit Google and call themselves "computer techs" and "PC specialists" nowadays.

Drive not seen, yet seeing the original FAT32 partition?? WTF?? If the drive isn't seen by Windows, you're not seeing ANY partition. Unplugging and plugging the USB cable back in when it's clicking? I wonder if our Google Specialist thought to read the rest of the post where it says that he took the drive out and hooked it up direct, only to be greeted by the same clicking? Or if our "PC specialist" thought to consider that you don't need software on a USB drive in Windows 2000 or higher because Windows detects it and loads the drivers automatically? Or....

OMG what a tool.

 

[PC eye]

I just picked up the drive and shook the shit out of it and gave it a few thumps and now Windows is seeing it again.



Instead of a clicking I'm hearing a scraping sound when it's loading. I guess I'll be moving all my stuff off it pronto.

That certainly doesn't sound too healthy for sure. I recommend you work fast in case it simply goes totally doa without warning.

 

[dznutz]

I just picked up the drive (the internal drive only) and shook the shit out of it and gave it a few thumps and now Windows is seeing it again.



Instead of a clicking I'm hearing a scraping sound when it's loading. I guess I'll be moving all my stuff off it pronto.

try setting the hd on the table, pick it up with both hands, shake it from your left to your right. not erratically but with controlled movements. do it 20x. then use it as an internal drive in the pc

 

[SirKenin]

And then unplug the USB cable and plug it back in.. Just in case.