Recovering files from 'clicking' HDD - help pls

gang I have had great success in the past recovering files from "unrecoverable" HDD's, but this one is a beast.

you probably know the rule: if it spins, you have hope. If it does not spin, you have a roll of dice... ain't likely :cry
This is a samsung drive that went a lot further/longer than I thought it would or should but finally suffered a sudden "death".
You've heard of the "click of death" on drives - click-click-click. this one veritably THUMPS - seriously, you can hold it when its powered up and it thumps like an ailing heart. I have not yet given up as it is spinning, some

so, on multiple tries [about 20 so far] - I can fairly reliably cool it [freezer], on the first try lashed to SATA 1 on a good system, it will usually not be recognizable. second pass, it will be recognized, and the hp embedded SMART reader will raise the Alarm flag - I go ahead and boot.
Disk Manager usually if I get that far will see it as a "Healthy", "Active", RAW-Partition drive with a bad block or 10. Since the format data is trashed, my past experience tells me if I can get a 'quick' NTFS format on it, I have a fighting chance, right? But the system will hang [I think due to bus errors due to the drive] and eventually Blue Screen when trying to format the drive. It tries.... Disk Manager will initiate the format utility, and the UI will signal "Formatting", and I wait. It has never been able to complete that.

I'm thinking maybe a different tool has a stealthier, smaller-footprint way of getting the NTFS data on there. ??? maybe even different hardware with a different SATA controller could change the equation??

anyone with a clue, pls let me know

 

Well, nobody can fault you for not trying, that's for sure! You're a warrior geek poet
Unfortunately, if the drive is "thumping" then you know that the heads are impacting the platters, over and over and over, at 7,500 RPMs, trashing data as they inexorably self-destruct and morph into tiny jack hammers. Even if you were able to accomplish the quick format at this point in your microscopic demolition derby, what makes you think that there's any intact recoverable files left on the disk? Your data is going to be totally trashed long before the platters eventually lock up and stop spinning (which sounds like it's not far off).

 

More destruction instead of getting something to be recovered I think...

 

appreciate those helpful and encouraging tips ! :-D

i've been here before. its tedious work but in the past, success finally came.
this time I may be skunked.

btw... not that many people are watching this thread: majorgeeks is LOADED with tracking 'wares... quite a long and distinguished list that Ghostery ID's.

 

You lost me there, zapp. What are you saying? :confused

 

It was more like an aside in a stage play. He runs Ghostery which monitors third party tracking cookies, sites and software in his browser(s). Of course, it has nothing to do with his thumping hard drive. It's toast.

 

One thump too many and I take a 'port-a-band' saw and cut it in half to sanitize it and then buy another drive. Backups have everything you produced and really wanted. Internet still has everything else.

 

I hesitate to ask what you do to "sterilize" a hard drive (perhaps toss it in a wood chipper?) :-D

Good time for me to get on my soap box and suggest that everyone reading this thread look into doing disk imaging backups in addition to file backups. With the former, you can install a new hard drive and simply write your backed up drive image to the new drive to completely reinstate every last sector from the old "thumper".

Disk imaging is different than simple file backup, where you copy individual files to another location without copying the important information related to your hard drive (MBR, hidden system files, partition tables, etc.). With disk imaging, you make a perfect byte for byte copy of your entire disk (at least the parts that hold data) and store that image on a different drive. If your system is later rendered unbootable for any reason (malware, file deletion, registry corruption, MBR destruction, partition table skewing etc.) you will be able to copy your stored disk image back onto your system disk, overwriting it entirely and thereby restoring your system to the exact state it was in when the disk image was created (clean, bootable, and functional).

Disk imaging backup programs include:

• AOMEI Backupper (freeware) - http://www.backup-utility.com

• Macrium Reflect (freeware) - http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/macrium_reflect_free_edition.html

• Paragon Drive Backup (freeware) - http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/paragon_drive_backup.html

• EaseUS ToDo Backup (freeware) - http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/easeus_todo_backup_free_edition.html

• Acronis TrueImage (shareware) - http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/acronis_true_image_home_2013.html

• NovaStor NovaBackup (shareware) - http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/novabackup.html

Note that all of these apps are fairly large downloads (50 - 220 MB) because each contains a "mini" version of an operating system (WinPE or Linux) that is used in creating the boot disk that provides the user access to their unbootable system during the image restoration phase.