External HD- click of death

My external HD (western digital My Book) failed on me. Everytime I plug it in, I get 6 clicks and it shuts off. Changing USB cable didn't work, even taking the HD apart and plugging it into my desktop didn't work so I know its not the power supply. Therefore, its the hard drive itself. Its out of warranty and personally I don't care about the drive, I can always buy a new one. What I care about is the data stored on the HD which is not backed out. Its over 500 gigs. I know taking it to a professional company would cost A LOT, about $1000 just to back it out. So I was wondering do you guys know any way to solve the click of death.

 

One possible solution is to place your drive in a ziploc bag and place it in the freezer for an hour or so, then quickly pull it out and see if you can get it to read the files. If you can, just transfer small amounts at a time (of your most critical data since you're already pushing it) since you don't want it to "die" on you again while in the middle of a large transfer. If you still can't read the files, there's basically nothing you can do except bring it to an expensive company or just forget about the data.

 

I think it'll be hard to get the data off it, you can check out these software.
http://www.active-undelete.com/
http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm
http://data-recovery-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

 

yea i tried the freezing process, no go. Anything else? I don't think softwares would work in this situation because I can't even see the HD when its connected to the computer. It would just make the clicks and shuts off.

Edit: well could someone tell me more about the freezing thing because I heard several things
a.) do I leave it in the freezer overnight or just a couple hours is fine
b.) how long do i wait after i take it out of the freezer. Some people says wait 12 hours, some says do it immediately afterward but I'm afraid ice turns into water and it would screw up the HD even more
c.) will this screw up the data on the HD because just in case this doesn't work, I could have the option of taking it to a professional if necessary.

 

runtime Get Data back is great! ive used it on numerous failed drives, that would freeze windows or force me to play fun games with sleep mode to install them. It Was always able to read a drive that would spin up. Even a hard drive where an ide pin broke off.

only had one drive completely die and not be able to use this product on. The drive some how shorted out and fried its board. i would flick any PSU in protected mode(off) instantly.

 

a) may as well try both
b) again, try both, you've got nothing to lose. And the reason the drive is in a bag with most of the air gone is so that little moisture is there to turn into ice.
c) it won't screw up the data since all this does is if there's a crack somewhere that causes the problem, the freezing should help close that gap by shrinking all the parts slightly, bridging the gap so that it's possible that the drive will be read next time.

 

You could do the data recovery yourself by buying the exact model drive as yours now and swap the platters. just do it in a clean room Thats all those data recovery places do that charge 8k to do.

 

This would be my suggestion after you try other software. Just make sure to lay everything out, swap them ASAP, and close them. Keep compressed air around at all times, and work FAST. You may have a lot of trouble finding the exact drive though if yours is long out of warantee.

 

you could also try swapping just the circuit board on top, if you try to swap parts. my guess is it would be safer the swapping platters.

 

You make it sound like swapping platters is like changing a cd-rom lol

 

Do NOT swap the platters like a few people above have said. The chamber in the hard drive that contains the platters is vacuum-sealed. After the freezer technique, you don't have much of a choice but to bring it to a professional..

Edit: and yea, agreed with the guy who just posted before me lol..

 

yea swapping platters is an interesting idea, it would probably work in theory but as faruk said, it probably won't work. Thanks guys for all the response, if you think of any more, please do tell.