Samsung 1Tb Hd Click Of Death And Possible Recovery

[RandomSand]

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.

Edited January 3, 2013 by RandomSand

[keeniau96]

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.

[JakeBKK]

You mean it sound like this?

[RandomSand]

You mean it sound like this?

Yeah, sounds like that.

[NHJ]

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.

[NotEinstein]

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

[RandomSand]

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