Data Recovery Hi, i have 320 GB Wastern Digital Hard drive, and having problem in its platters moving, i think its platter moter jams. can i recover its data.

There are three levels of data recovery depending on the condition of the drive.

• Level 1: The drive was formatted or files were merely deleted. Assuming you haven't copied anything new to the drive. Download a data recovery program such as Recurva and run a deep scan on the drive. If it finds your data select it and select a different drive to copy it too. Once recovered you can put it back on the external drive.
• Level 2: The drive isn't functioning, parts have to be replaced. Data recovery engineers can do this typical cost around ~$550
• Level 3: The platters have to be extracted in a clean room and moved to another drive. data recovery engineers do this, typical cost ~$1500+

Unfortunately, I think you're toast! Depending on how much you need/want those photos, you might be limited to relying on an expensive 3rd party data recovery process. The noise indicates that the read/write head is scratching along the surface of the disc platter. Even if you could install a new read/write head, the physical damage to the disc platter may prevent any data recovery anyway. Check around on the Net and in your local area for data recovery services. They might be able to provide a better diagnosis of the problem, and possibly suggest a quote if they think they could recover any data for you.

If you think of a hard drive as an old phonograph/record player it makes this easier to understand (assuming you are old enough to have seen a record player..SMILE) The data is stored on platters or circular metalic disks that spin at 5400 or 7200 revolutions per minute. A "Head" or needle like arm extends from the corner of the drive and actually reads and rights data to those platters. When the arm motor goes bad the "HEAD ARM" typically will chatter against the HD case as the head doesnt stop where it should and hits the case. If your hard drive is still functional I would suggest backing up your data as this chattering always indicates an impending failure of that drive. If the chattering is happening and the drive is not being read then the motor has gone bad on teh arm already and its a goner. If the data has SIGNIFICANT value the platters can be remounted by a professional company and data retrieved but that service usually starts at about $1000 dollars and is usally used only by companies to recover data for business reasons.

Yikes 500 GB is a lot of data to lose, especially if you have no back-ups. In case you have never seen the inside of one, a hard drive is a series of metallic/magnetized platters on a spindle and a series of arms (resembling those of a record player) for each platter which record and retrieve data in the storage sectors formatted on the drive platters. The top 3 enemies of hard drives are: Impacts - Heat - Magnetic Objects . . . these top 3 all prove fatal to your drives operation. I am guessing the impact from when you dropped your HDD jarred the arms from their position or even may have broken the reader head. The bigger the storage of the drive, the more fragile they seem to be. Once an arm is dislodged or broken, the drive cannot function... the damage is mechanical. An arm knocked from its point of origin when not in use or jarred durring data access can no longer properly know where data is or fins its original position. Dont waste time on file recovery programs if this is the case, they require an operational drive to scan leftover data. . if the damage is to one of the platters, you might have luck with a software recovery application, but the process is very very slow and will take days. You can try taking it to data recovery experts and it will cost you usually around $1.00-5.00 per gigabyte - pretty costly. My advice, See if you can RMA the drive if it was under warranty) to get a new drive . . . or even have the data retrieved if it was that important . . . other than that, move on and be more careful with external drives in the future. Look for drives that have good impact ratings if you have a propensity for clumsiness, even then, handle with care.

This is physical damage....
So one chance is that you can try to repair the os with your installation cd.
Other thing you can do to, is to use recovery software to recover your data if you wish so??
You will have to replace the hard-drive.One more thing you can do, is to replace the electronic medium on that hard-disk with another one which is good.
If you are good in manipulating that, you can find oner one replace it and see
Hope this small tip will help
Any other issue, I will be glad to help you
uttam

Sadly that about sums up your issue when dealing with a ticking drive. This sound is normally caused by a hardware malfunction of your drive controller board, motor or head. If your drive is still detectable under your OS you can attempt to recover the data with a software recovery utility. However, be warned that the more you use a failing drive the worse the damage will become and it could possibly increase the cost to have it recovered.

The reason for the high price tag on the data recovery service is due to companies having to open your drive inside a clean room to avoid any dust damaging your data. They then replace the failed parts on your drive or transplant your platters holding the data into working hardware to recover said data. While some of these repairs can be done by hardcore computer users it is very rare to do it at home.

If it was running at the time it fell, the heads crashed into the platters, and the buzzing you're hearing is the dents left in the platters spinning by 7200 times a second.
Not good. Likely will need a professional service to recover the data.

NO IT WILL NOT BEST BET is you've lost your data as the scratched heads and exposure render it close to imposible for you to recover data the only way is to call a data recovery outfit for a solution .
good luck

There is a number of data recovery solutions online. Just google it. I would recommend one that sends out a static sensitive bag for transportation. But the customer service rep you spoke with, is probably right. The actuator arm has probably locked up and is failing to move back and forth reading and writing to the platters. Good luck and i feel for you with it being your new born on the hard drive.