The HD suddenly stops getting recognized by the laptop, in the middle of any action.

SOURCE: weird noises, not recognized by laptop

Hi,

This is a common problem with hard drives. Most hard drives (whether external or internal) that produces a "weird clicking noises" indicates a mechanical problem. Often this is the head arm trying to move from its position but failing to do so. What you are hearing as "weird clicking noises" are when it slaps back to its park position or when trying to move into correct position.

Should this be the case, am afraid that the HD is a goner. The normal course of action is to replace. If the data inside are mission critical, your only course of action is to avail of those data recovery by firm specializing in such but they are rather expensive.

Trying to use "data recovery software" might prove to be futile since as earlier stated, the problem is mechanical in nature.

You can of course still give it a try.

Should you feel adventurous, would be willing to experiment and gamble, pls post back as I may have not a permanent solution but a "down & dirty" trick of making it run long enough hopefully to get some of your data back. Again, this is a "hit or miss" and should only be considered if all else fails and you really want to get your files back.

Hope this be of some help/idea. Pls post back as requested, how things turned up or should you need additional information.

Good luck and kind regards.

SOURCE: ps3 does not reconize FAT32 partition on external hd

download this program http://www.compuapps.com/Download/swissknife/swissknife.htm
and format it again then try it, it should work fine, did for me.

SOURCE: HD not recognized and front blue button blinks

best to try using a shorter usb cable, long cables tends to introduce signal loss which could cause your HDD not receiving sufficient signal from your PC. Also, if you are using a USB hub (usb extenders or a device that adds USB ports) make usre that you are not connecting the HDD there. If the HDD has a separate poer source, please check that it is plug-in properly and getting power from your mains.

SOURCE: computer doesn't recognize my Lacie HD

From your description it sounds like you power adapter did indeed fail at first, but if the HDD spins now the adapter seems to be working fine at the moment. If the hdd is in device manager, than at least you can use carving tools like photorec to pull your files out, even if the filesystem is corrupt. If you want somebody else to do it for you you can check Data Recovery NYC. Otherwise http://hddguru.com/ is a great source for tools and knowledge on how to do it yoruself.