[Paul W.]

Hi,

 

My external 3TB Seagate Barracuda HDD suddenly started to have a clicking noise when powered on. After about 15-20 second of clicking, the drive powers off. The clicking noise started happening after I powered on the computer after a cold shutdown, without waiting enough time to let the platter stop moving on the HDD. I have tried two other power supplies without success. Also, the weather has been hotter than usual during the last few weeks.

 

1. Is there a test to discover the cause of the problem?

 

2. Is there an at-home fix? Replace with a donor PCB, or open the case and move things around (without a clean room)?

 

3. Do you have any data recovery references or recommendations, etc?

 

Any help is greatly appreciated. I have a lot of very important data that I created on this HDD. I am mechanically inclined, with enough experience to try fixing it myself, with your advice and guidance.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

 

HDD info:

 

Seagate Barracuda 3000GB

model: ST3000DM001
PN: 9YN166-570
FW: CC9F
date: 13015

pcb id:

100664987 REV B
sticker: 5011 G

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1. Is there a test to discover the cause of the problem?

 

Yes Seatools HERE. although if this is a boot drive youll have to attach in a dock or put it in another bootable PC as the non boot drive. A clicking noise is normally the sound of death.

 

2. Is there an at-home fix? Replace with a donor PCB, or open the case and move things around (without a clean room)?

 

You could try another pcb,, unlikely to cause this issue, a clicking noise is not good.

 

3. Do you have any data recovery references or recommendations, etc?

 

For important data just restore from a backup you would have made, right.

 

Date code.........13015 corresponds to 2012-07-10

Edited by nordvark, 27 September 2015 - 10:53 PM.

[nordvark]

1. Is there a test to discover the cause of the problem?

 

Yes Seatools HERE. although if this is a boot drive youll have to attach in a dock or put it in another bootable PC as the non boot drive. A clicking noise is normally the sound of death.

 

2. Is there an at-home fix? Replace with a donor PCB, or open the case and move things around (without a clean room)?

 

You could try another pcb,, unlikely to cause this issue, a clicking noise is not good.

 

3. Do you have any data recovery references or recommendations, etc?

 

For important data just restore from a backup you would have made, right.

 

Date code.........13015 corresponds to 2012-07-10

Edited by nordvark, 27 September 2015 - 10:53 PM.

[Paul W.]

Do you have an idea what is causing the clicking noise? Is the head stuck on the platter? Is the head slamming back and forth into the park position? If someone opened the case, could they possibly fix it by moving something around a bit? Thanks.

[nordvark]

The drive sounds like its dead, and if you pull it apart if it wasnt to start with it most certainly will be junk. Just use your backup and restore to a new drive.

[Paul W.]

No backup. It's pretty depressing. I lost some valuable data.

[nordvark]

I'm sorry, but you should learn from this, a clicking hard drive is almost certainly dead. Develop a good backup routine and you wont face this disaster again, and for what its worth, yes it happened to me many years ago before I got in the habit of regular backups.

[Paul W.]

Thank you. I wanted a backup, but can not yet afford it. You're right, backups are very important. I'm interested in learning how to repair the drive by myself now; whether I need to take classes or learn from some expert. I guess that the tools to do the job is a must, which is why I hope I can find a technical school that has tools which I could use. Anyways, if anyone else has some ideas or advice, please pipe in.