Is there hope for this Hard drive?

I will only ask today and wait through tomorrow (Sunday July 27 2014) then not look again for help. I have a Seagate Barracuda 1 TB drive that came in my DELL that was still under warranty when it went bad. It clicks and nothing can be read. I tried after I installed the new one they sent me and it was up and running to access it. All I get is that fatal "clicking" noise and nothing.. My question is: Is there any hope of me accessing that drive , even for a short time so that I can copy off my desktop files. I really need them but I have to ship this defective drive back. I have delayed as long as I can. I was given a suggestion to freeze the drive for 1 hour then try to access it again. I know it sounds crazy but this fella is professional and I have just not done it yet. I am wondering if DELL would know I did that and raise a fuss. Anyway that is my problem...:cry

 

The "clicking" sound normally means the needle that reads the platters has failed. In short, you will not be able to recover the data yourself.

Your only hope is using a professional data recovery service that physically disassembles the drive in a "clean room" and attempts to get the data directly off the platters. You'll have to decide how much the lost data is worth since, on a 1TB hard drive, the cost is between $800 and $2000 depending on the amount of data that can be recovered.

Sorry for the bad news; however I hope this helps.

 

I was pretty much sure that was the answer. Don't have that kind of money. I was mainly some photos but I have them all up to Feb when the backups started NOT doing as they should. I should have suspected something then. So it is mainly MY work files that I will have to redo. Hubby's backups were on a flash drive and recoverable... rats!
thank you anyhow

 

I've never actually frozen a drive to see if it would render it usable for a time, but there are a number of anecdotal tales reporting success doing that.

However, if your computer is still under warranty, I'd first check with Dell to see if part of the warranty covers data recovery. I have no idea if they could determine if the drive has been frozen or not - and freezing parts of your computer would probably void any warranty. Are the pictures you wish to recover worth the cost of a replacement drive? Also, there is no guarentee freezing the drive will even work in this case.

 

I also recommend checking to see if data recovery is part of the warranty before you do anything. The major risk would be condensation. I suspect they have those water detection strips like the ones in phones. Otherwise, they can't tell how cold it's been. You could seal it in a ziplock bag with the cables attached to keep it frost free. I've done it before with mixed results but not with a drive under warranty. If those files are worth potentially eating the cost of a replacement drive, you might try it but those files had better be irreplaceable. If not, don't.

Most importantly, invest in a flash drive for yourself.

 

I was hoping to save myself alot of hours, rescanning photos , plus I lost some that are recent but I can live without them. Nothing in this life is so important that I would give my soul for. lol. The other files are digitized embroidery files that I will have to do over but I lost alot of clipart that is not replaceable. It was free when I got it, but now has to be paid for. Not in my price range. So I will gulp and grin and get on with my life. Just gotta be be more OCD on backing up. I did recover from backups more then I thought I had. Thank you for the advice. I DO have a flash drive in place that is empty and ready for use.