Bad news.
If a hard drive makes a clicking noise, it's most likely lost forever.
I have been able to rescue files from a dying hard drive which refused to cooperate with Windows (however it didn't make weird noises). I just plugged it into an Ubuntu computer and managed to copy a portion of the files with a command line tool called rsync. About one third of the files were corrupted but the rest of them were ok. The copying took several hours to complete. The drive had a significant pile of bad sectors, so that's why...
Another (rather difficult) rescue tool would have been ddrescue. Using it would probably take an entire day or so. As long as the hard drive communicates with a linux computer in any way, tools like rsync or ddrescue could be used.
However, if a hard drive has reached a point where it makes some extra noises, it's probably way beyond any point of reasonable recovery. Assuming it does not communicate with any computer, be it windows or gnu/linux, fixing your drive could require some extra knowledge, hardware or money.
There are companies who are willing to fix that hard drive for an outrageous sum. Before even considering commercial data rescue options, you need to as yourself: "Is my data really worth that much?" If you are working on an important project and years of work is on that drive and there are no backups anywhere, letting a company take care of it could be your cup of tea after all.
Testimonial: "Thanks so much, but fortunately i got a different USB cable out of my box and it worked. Thanks anyway, Nicholas"
I had the same problem with my Seagate drive and it turns out that the drive motor failed. Since I was using it for backup only, I junked it and went to Carbonite. this was the third Seagate drive that had the same problem and all three had the problem a month or two after the warranty expired. Seagate used to be a great product but not any more. I am very happy with the cloud. All in all, the yearly charge for Carbonite is cheaper than having thse drives failed time after time.
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SOURCE: Windows 98 driver for FreeAgent
If your PC is still running Win98 then it probably has a USB version 1.0 port. I don't think the Faster USB version 2.0 devices will work properly even if you have the correct driver - i.e. you have a hardware version conflict. Try Purchasing a USB version 2.0 Daughter board for the PC and plugging the Seagate drive into that iinstead.
SOURCE: I cannot see my free agent external drive
Thanks for your responses...
I've pretty much decided that it must be a hardware problem within the harddrive itself...Can anyone lead me in the right direction to maybe take out the harddrive to put into another external shell in order to hopefully recover my data? Again I'm using a Seagate Freeagent Desktop 500GB external harddrive.
SOURCE: Seagate Freeagent Dropped
Unfortunately what you are describing is a damaged platter inside the hard drive. You may be able to get a technician to recover some data but generally this means the drive is gone forever.
SOURCE: can you use a Seagate 500GB FreeAgent GoFlex
Yes, but because it's a hard disk and has low transfer speeds it will actually slow down the pc instead of making it work faster. Ready boost is designed to be used only with memory sticks of the latest generation.
SOURCE: My Seagate Freeagent Goflex 1Tb
Hello Gravi,
Please try one of the following options.
Try different USB ports.
If that didnt work, then try updating/reinstalling your USBdrivers.
Try after these options a reboot first.
Also take a look at this page where some driver problem for your specific harddrive are explained!
http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=goflex-software&vgnextoid=11c1fab114b48210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD
I hope this helps you out!
With kind regards,
MisterN
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