If your HD Clicks and doesn't start SMACK IT!

WARNING!

Smacking your HDD may get it working again but you need to be aware that doing so is very likely to cause more damage that will not manifest until it's been used for a while. It may fail in an hour, a day a week or a month, but it will eventually fail. This method is a LAST RESORT and is unreliable In the long run. If a drive has become unreliable it should be replaced.

The shock, or G-force, from whacking the HDD may temporarily resolve only SOME problems such as a stuck head or a bad Voice Coil Actuator (VCA). The clicking sound comes from the VCA. Most drives will click two to four times, then the platters will spin down. If the VCA is good but the pre-amp on the controller located on the bottom of the HDD is cooked you can smack it all you want but it will not resolve the problem. In fact, it will only make recovering data far more difficult and lead to a deeper sense of misery and despair. A blown pre-amp can make the drive tick the same way a bad VCA or stuck head may. DO NOT DEPEND ON THE TICK SOUND AS A RELIABLE DIAGNOSTIC METHOD.

Before abusing your HDD, carefully inspect the circuit board located on the bottom of the drive for any scorching. If you are very handy and know what a torx head is, you may also try to remove the PCB to inspect the other side where most if not all of the components are located. If you are a klutz or have no experience with electronics, do not attempt removal of the PCB, doing so will only make matters worse. Try sniffing the PCB, you may detect a slightly charred or acrid scent. If this is the case, you will have to send your drive to a professional data recovery house. Recovery is expensive, usually $750 or more. That alone is enough to justify investing $100 to $200 for a back up drive and the two whole minutes it takes to run a backup program. 100% of data loss is preventable if you back up your shiiiiii.......if you back up your data. To learn more about the clicking sound, Google "click of death".

Another method for temporarily getting a ticking/grinding/screaming HDD to work again is to put it in an air tight plastic bag, squeeze out as much air as possible and stick it in the freezer for an hour or two. Before you re-connect the drive to your computer, BE VERY VERY SURE that there is no condensation (water droplets) anywhere on the drive. If you live in a humid climate, this is very likely to happen. If you do not allow time for the HDD to dry out before re-attaching it, otherwise, YOU MAY FRY YOUR ENTIRE COMPUTER. Dry is good.

If you do manage to get the drive working, use the limited time it may work again wisely. Begin the recovery or backup process immediatly.

Scorpio

same problem here.........clicks n all......
After smacking the external hard disk gets detected...the drivers are installed...even the 'safely remove hardware' icon is there in the task bar...but the icon doesn't appear in the My Computer folder.......
Help me out..........please..........SOS

Thanks! My 4 year old MP3 player - Creative Zen with a 8 gig Seagate ST 1.2 Hard Drive- finally hit the pavement today. When I tried to use it, it made buzzing noise and stared back at with me with a never-ending power-up screen. I thumped it a few times lightly with no luck, then I disassembled it to get at the HD. Then I firmly slammed each side of the HD against my desk, trying it after each smack. the third time did it! I figured it was bad luck since I just bought 2 new batteries a few months ago.. take that, Murphy!

OMG! it worked!
I have a 500 gb seagate and I dropped it very hard on the floor. When I plugged it on there was this buzzing sound.I was very desperate.... But couple of minutes ago after I read this I tried pounding it to the table Vertically! it started working! Try this solution before you go and buy a new external drive, you wont lose anything.

Thanks kinggeorg

the same for mine external HD

Just curious, was it an external drive?? Thanks