I have a dead hard-drive, Samsung 3.5" SATA HD103SJ - 1,000GB, and of course, it's full of my precious data !

It's a bit strange how it died... I accessed it from Media Player Classic and the list of files must have been cashed by Windows.

I tried to delete several folders from within the MPC File-Open box *before* the disk had spun-up.

Then, *When* it did spin-up, it started to click-clack and then froze my PC.

Upon rebooting Windows; the drive could not be found by the BIOS and it just click-clacks.

I think this strange as the click-clack would indicate a head crash. But, as the BIOS cannot find it, I wonder if the drive's identity is stored on its platters? Or perhaps the PCB has gone ?

I'd appreciate someone else's perspective on what's the cause here & if professional recovery might be possible at all.

EDIT: I'd like to know if Thai recovery outfits are actually testing the components on the PCB and if they are routinely changing PCB *and* also using a hot air station to swap the firmware in the recovery process.

Gregory at DataWizards in Phuket is only reliable HDD specialist that I know of in Thailand. I am reasonably sure that the problem you described will allow for data recovery but he may have to resort to clean room procedure.

You mean it sound like this?

You mean it sound like this?

Yeah, sounds like that.

The drive cannot be seen in the bios cause the board is waiting for the heads to initialize, prices should start around 10K for a recovery of this size.

I had a drive doing that recently. I took it out, gave it a shake, and all was well again.......

Shaking didn't work for me. If it did, I'd back-up my files quickly, and claim under warranty.