One day in a fit of alcohol-fueled madness I thumped my laptop (containing the above), causing it to have a head crash -_-
... now while spinning, it just wobbles around the landing zone ~~~~

Are these repairable, or do I need to send it to a HDD Repair / Data Recovery Lab ??

Cheers ^_^

 

is it recognized by the hardware, does it try to boot?
if it won't boot and it doesn't have anything you want to save on it, trash it.

if you want to try to get the data off it. stop using it. get an external case for it and mount it in there, attach it to a working computer and see if you can mount the volume and copy files off it to another drive. don't write anymore files to the drive cause its days are numbered.

 

here's a link to HDD regenerator
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/hdd_regenerator.html

you can run it in demo mode and it will tell you if it can access the drive and if it can repair the damaged sectors.
but it won't repair them in demo mode. you will have to buck up for the full version to get it to repair stuff for you.

its much cheaper than a drive repair service or a clean room that replaces platters...

you will need to install this on a different drive than the damaged drive,

from the link:


Can the HDD Regenerator repair your drive?

Almost 60 % of damaged hard disks can be repaired by regeneration. You can always download free demo version and try to regenerate the first found bad sector. The main purpose of the unregistered demo version is to display a report which contains information about the possibility to regenerate the entire disk by means of the registered full version. If the first found bad sector has been successfully regenerated, you can buy the product to regenerate all bad sectors on your hard drive. If the first bad sector has NOT been successfully regenerated, then replace your hard disk drive as soon as possible.

 

Great advice Garamondo, but that HDD is most probably gone. HDDs are very sensitive to falls and kicks, especially while working. I lost one external 2.5" HDD when it fell less than 2 feet on a thick carpet, right after I disconnected it. When the HDD keeps clicking, trying to read some sectors, it's called the "click of death" for a reason. The worst thing is it is extremely hard to retrieve any data from such a damaged HDD. If your advices don't help (same as I would do) only specialised, and expensive, HDD repair service can help. Sorry.

They take the platter and put it in a special platter reader, or in a same model HDD. That's why it's expensive.

Cheers!

 

Last edited: May 10, 2024

i've recovered many failing drives, its worth a try if it has data he wants to save. but the click of death can be fatal...
also freezing damaged drives does sometime work for recovering data.
I've seen videos of people opening drives to unstick the heads and getting them working (not in a clean room either) and they worked.
I only tried that once, and it didn't work for me. but I took the magnets out and tied them on a string and use them to retreive screws and bolts when I'm working on the car, so not a total loss....

I slammed my hand down on a laptop and was unlucky enough to hit the hard drive. i managed to get 90% of my data off of it, but it took a week of freezing it and using HDD regenerator, but I had no backup and it was my work computer at the time and I really neeeded the data...

so its possible, but it can take a while.... that was in 2013, I haven't hit a computer since....

 

I understand the technicalities, the sound and mechanics of 'the click of death ' but my case is more of a wobble than a click !

... probably the same thing maybe...

 

mann that sounds something i would do
that's why the last HDD i bought has a rubber case - lacie style, but cheaper

 

if HDD Regenerator can't fix it, don't throw more money away on data recovery it can cost way more than just buying a new drive, also data recovery may not get your data back and what it does may be corrupted.

 

if you can successfully repair it, I'd image it with macrium reflect, and trash it once I have a good image - take the verify data option when you image it. then write the image to a new hard drive and you just saved the trouble of installing the o/s and programs and drivers and of course all your data...

you can then put the newly imaged drive in your laptop and you're back in business....