I've just had a dreaded hard disk crash. The drive now just makes a clicky noise and won't boot.

Although I have the really important stuff backed up, there's still loads of things like save games and my music which I'd rather not lose.

Is there any free software which can recover data from a corrupted disk?

dont think u can just use software to recover data from a HDD that has a hardware failure

The control board is what fails. The information is still on the disc.
What I have done and suggest is to buy an identical hard drive as the one that failed and swap control boards.

Hiren's boot

Yeah, I think it's pretty knackered, it won't even show in the BIOS.

What do you reckon the chances of a circuit board swap fixing it are?

The circuit board swap has worked for me both times I have tried it. Both times the drives quit working and started making loud clicking noises.
There really isn't much else to go wrong on the inside of a drive. It's basically just a brushless motor and a couple electromagnets. Nothing else can go bad. The clicking noise is the little arm inside the drive not getting any proper signal/ control and it just goes nuts.

It really worked?

My drive spins up (so it's not the motor) and then I get 5 or 6 loud clicks before it goes quiet and I get a 'Boot failure' error. Does that sound like the symptoms you had?

I've found an identical model on ebay, manufactured two months after my broken drive: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230967970446

If it is clicking it isn't the control board that failed, it is a head crash. The more you use it, the less likely you are of recovery.

You cannot recovery it with software however and you most definitely cannot do it for free. There are various HDD recovery firms around the UK. IIRC, we (the company I work for) use Disk Source, but it is a long time since we've had a drive in for recovery so can't be completely sure. These services cost a lot of dime though. There really is no point for games and pictures of you cock you haven't put on Facebook yet.

[edit: When switching the control board, it isn't a permanent solution. If it works, back up to a brand new HDD. Otherwise you'll be in the same situation quite quickly.]

It's not a constant click-click-click as it spins, it spins up normally then there's five or six loud whacks which sounds like the read head hitting the stops, then it sounds fine.

If it was a head crash, wouldn't it be a constant clicking as it spins?

If it isn't constant then it isn't a head crash. It sounds like death when that happens.

You should buy two HDDs. One to cannibalise to see if switch the control board works and one to back up onto.

Yep, that's the plan. Plus get a proper backup system in place.

Any recommendations for backing up regularly?

This is a 'may work'
Put the drive in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for 24 hours.
Plug it in and it may work long enough to get your data off

Yes, sounds silly but it has worked in other cases.

Sounds like frozen shrapnel to me

Quote from Crashgate3 :

Yep, that's the plan. Plus get a proper backup system in place.

Any recommendations for backing up regularly?

I use a 2TB NAS with Backup Assist (the NAS cost about £250 Backup Assist is about £150). Works nicely. Some NAS boxes come with backup software and some editions of Windows will have Native Backup, it isn't a brilliant but it works and is free.

For a low cost backup solution a 1 or 2TB external HDD and Native Backup. The only cost is the external HDDs. But you have to be strict with yourself and only use them for the backups.

Quote from Racer X NZ :

This is a 'may work'
Put the drive in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer for 24 hours.
Plug it in and it may work long enough to get your data off

Yes, sounds silly but it has worked in other cases.

It takes a couple of minutes for a HDD to get up to operating temperature. By the time you've booted windows all you're doing now is causing condensation inside the HDD wrecking it and your chances of data recovery.

I hear that technique banded around a lot and know of no instances where it has resulted in being able to recover data.

http://livecdlist.com/

i have a very good recovery software i can upload if you want it. i havent read all the posts so idk its still actual

Just bought a drive on Ebay. This is mine:

This is the one I've bought:

Serial numbers are only 7000 apart, so they seem to have been made only a day or so apart, bit of luck there.

Fingers crossed for the circuit board swap.

IIRC, you will need to desolder the motor. It doesn't just unscrew and drop off.

Got your soldering iron ready?

Been a while since I did any. In most of the videos I've seen it just pops off so possibly (hopefully) it depends on the drive. It should arrive in the next day or so so we'll see.

Well shiver me timbers. The circuit-board swap actually WORKED. I've got everything back!!! BIG thanks to everyone who gave me the confidence to actually try it.

Didn't need soldering at all - all the connections from the CB to the drive wre the compression type where the contacts are just pushed together when it's screwed down.





It also seems the problem wasn't caused by general wear & tear on the drive, it was....... leaking watercooling fluid..