How to recover data from a hard drive (stuck heads: buzzing, clicking, etc)
Vložit
- čas přidán 21. 03. 2014
- Does your hard drive make a buzzing noise when you turn it on? Or does it make clicking noises or not spin up? Well, in this video I will show you how to fix this fairly common problem which is caused by the drive's heads getting stuck on the platters. You'll definitely need this before starting: amzn.to/3rPHejx
Disclosure: These are affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase from the various merchants they link to, DIY Perks may earn a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to the eBay Partner Network and Amazon Associates.
Needed before starting - amzn.to/3rPHejx
In some cases, data recovery software may have to be used. Here is a good one to check out: Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery - Professional bit.do/stellarphoenix
Want to be extra safe? You can build a clean air enclosure. Here's a video all about that:
• How to Make a Clean Ai...
OFFICIAL LINKS:
Support me on Patreon: / diyperks
Official Website: www.diyperks.com/
Discord: diyperks.com/discord-server/
Forums: diyperks.com/community/
Twitter: / diyperks - Věda a technologie
![Eminem - Houdini [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/22tVWwmTie8/mqdefault.jpg)
You'll definitely need this before starting any repair job: amzn.to/2mO5DRB
DIY Perks hi can you help me? my laptop screen went black, no displap no any light coming from screen.
1 month ago i just brought that ! :D
Does it work with an external screen?
DIY Perks hi my hard drive sounds fine however it died and I have a lot of things I don't want to loose on it, is there a way to recover those things off that hard drive?
MrKissekotten Yfghxg
This is a very good video
I have 40 years experience repairing hard drives. My first experience was the 300 MB CDC drives that were the size of a washer or dryer. In those days we used to remove individual heads, clean out a boomerang shaped hole that were used to control the airflow, polish the heads using ordinary typing paper and alcohol and reassemble them. Today the components are too small to even attempt those techniques, however the principles involved remain the same. Your first step where you tap it on the tabletop should actually be the second step. First try holding the drive horizontal to the table so that the internal platters are parallel to the table and rapidly rotate the drive clockwise and counterclockwise with a twist of the wrist. The idea here is that the mass of the platters will cause the platters to remain stationary while the heads and the rest of the drive rotate. Repeating the motion four or five times will unstick the heads from the platter. Power up and see if that worked. If that fails a more drastic action is to tap that on the table as you showed.
About the dust. It's not the dust you have to worry about. It's contaminants. Frying bacon in the kitchen while repairing a drive in the den has caused heads to crash. Working on the drive in high humidity or well it's raining is a problem. Opening a drive that's cold in warm humid air will definitely cause a head crash. Breathing on it is a big no. Really the only mistake you made in this video is telling someone to blow the dust out. Nor should you use any kind of compressed air, unless you have a special compressor with dryers to remove moisture.
When hard drives start they do a purge. That simply means that they spin up and wait briefly for all the dust to be blown off of the desk. In the old days it was a little more complicated than that. Some really old drives ran little brushes in and out of the platters.
When a disk spins the atoms of air closest to the surface quickly accelerate to the same speed as the desk. It's the super thin layer of air that causes the heads to float. They should never actually touch the disk itself. The distance is so small that any visible dust would impact the side of the head without going under it. Even the tobacco smoke you see is probably too big to cause a head crash. It is the superfine particles of smoke that you can't see, for example, the bacon frying in the kitchen. The rule is, if you can smell it, it can crash the drive.
When these nearly invisible particles slip between the head and the disk surface they are almost instantly burned to a crisp. The burned remains get stuck to the head. With a small microscope, or a good jewelers Lupe, they appear as black streaks on the head. You won't be able to see them on the platter. They will be spread too thin to be visible.
If there is enough contaminants the burned remains will build up and alter the airfoil of the head. It's a lot like trying to water ski when the bottom of your skis are covered in barnacles. The head stops flying, contacts the disk and bounces along leaving a trail of dents and scratches in the dish. Eventually the track turns into grooves that you can actually feel. The disk heads are usually ceramic. They are so hard that the contact with the metal desk and the bouncing action will remove all the burnt contaminant. Sometimes the head regains its flight characteristics and you can use it to recover data from the undamaged part of the disk.
How to avoid having your head get stuck.
During a normal power down the heads are retracted completely off the desk where they encounter little ramps that spread them apart so that when they are loaded again they don't hit the edge of the spinning disc.
Stuck heads are usually caused by a power failure. If the head is near the center of the desk and the drive detects the power going down, it retracts the heads and attempts to park them. If there's insufficient power they may not make it to the top of the ramps. They slide back down and move out onto the disk which is slowing down. The flow of air that keeps the disk flying gets thinner and thinner. When the head comes to a stop there's no air trapped under it. It's almost like a vacuum or a suction cup. The technical term is stiction. This is why shaking the drive in a rotary motion to rotate the platters allows the head to move. It it's the same principle as sliding a suction cup along a smooth surface rather than trying to pull it straight away.
You can avoid stiction by making sure your power supply has enough reserve capacity to allow the heads to retract completely up on the ramps when they are parked.
Avoid adding too many drives or drives that require more power to your desktop without verifying that the power supply can handle them.
Avoid the use of "Y"cables and extension cables for the power supplying your drives. For laptops, be sure they shut down while the battery is still above 10 or 20% of its capacity.
Replace older laptop batteries that may not be putting out full voltage.
Building some sort of box to prevent dust from getting into your drive is a bad idea. Paper dust, cardboard dust, sawdust or just plain dust will collect on the surfaces of the box. Bumping the box will shake the dust loose. Unless you have a very large and expensive HEPA filter, the box may actually make things worse.
Instead:
Never work on a drive when you have a cold.
Don't sneeze on it, don't blow on it, don't use compressed air on it. Wait a couple hours after smoking or preparing a meal. Wash your hands. Don't lean over and the drive. About the only clean room supplies you really need is a cheap surgeon's mask to keep you from breathing on the surface.
One last note. Once a head has gotten stuck, it's a sure bet it will happen again. Replace the drive.
Congratulations Matt: excellent video. Since you did such a good job of explaining head stiction in layman terms, even though you said you had no real experience or training, I wanted to let you know you did a great job. I also thought it would be worth my effort to pass on some of my training and years of experience. My hope is you'll keep up the good work. If you ever decide to redo that video, I'm sure it'll be even better.
I used Dragon speak, I didn't bother to correct its mistakes, so don't blame me.
Bob Grosh Thanks very much for sharing your knowledge and experience Bob - I've learnt a lot from what you've written! Cheers!
This guy knows his stuff.
An excellent comment, Bob. I wish more people be like you - knowledgeable and willing to share his experience.
cool story bro. but here in the present u dont need all that explanation since we have SSD! thank god for SSD or i have to read ur long ass fucking ass comment ;). get urselves a fucking SSD and u dont ever have to fuck arounnd again :)
NITECOREPD, you are pathetic :)
YOU ARE A LIFE SAVER. I have been suffering from anxiety because of our hard drive. We waited and searched for months as to what we could do but all we found is to spend $1500 with an uncertainty that files won't be recovered. Last night we took a leap of faith to do this and we were screaming because it worked! Thank you for your help!!!
Hi,
What was the problem
With your hard drive ?
I’m considering doing this as I’m not willing to pay 1900AUD.
Thanks
This just shows how much those companies are overpricing their services. Prices are not established based on what it really costs but on what customers are ready to pay.
Please if your data is critical do not attempt to recover it yourself, unless you are very experienced.
@@MoRoarSport-VintageRacing1 Actually, you are wrong. The reason the industry charges what it does is due to the price of the tools and the cost of education. I have a small data recovery business and do this professionally. I have spent well over $100K in education and equipment. I can assure you that this guy has NO FUCKING IDEA what he is doing. The odds of being able to recover your data using this method, EXTREMELY LOW. Odds of another data recovery company being able to recover your data after you tried to DIY it and made a mistake, close to impossible.
@@QuasiDude data recovery isn't always that easy though.
I hope you are reaping some serious rewards in monetising your knowledge this way. Not only are you intelligent, practically minded and clearly spoken, you have a pleasant non arrogant disposition so lacking amongst many of your peers and you make it an enjoyable experience learning from you. And after 20 years of self taught fumbling, you reveal such secrets and insights that would have saved me many hours and hopefully will in future. Big respect my good man. Best wishes.
Very well said. I could not agree more. Cheers.
After many years my faithful DVD/HDD recorder finally gave up the ghost - or so I thought. All I could get from it was a physical clicking noise from the hard drive. Having watched quite a few rescue videos, I was loath to open the drive so eventually, I came across this video with its initial suggestion to tap/gently hit the edge of the housing as shown in the video. After a couple of goes, hey presto....the HD lives again, magic! Thank you so much. (In case anyone needs to know, the internal drive is a WD 1600BB from a Panasonic HDD/DVD recorder).
Been working on computers for over 25 years and this is the 1st time I've seen this trick. Tried it successfully on a damaged 3TB HDD. This comes to prove that and ol' dog in fact can learn new tricks! :D :D Good video!
Ten years in my case, and yeah, first time for everything. Cant wait to try this out.
This problem has been around since the 80's. It's called "stiction".
I've been working on PCs since Windows 3.1 as well. I never tried to open a hard drive because of all the scare stories about getting dust in the enclosure and ruining it. I can't be the only person who has worked on computers for decades and cringed watching him pop that hard drive chassis without a clean room environment! I won't be as afraid to try it now though, if I really need to that is. Good video. 😁👍
yep, this ole dog learned a new trick as well.
@@faizelosman3462 how do I fix ERROR "SMART status bad, back up and recover"?
would love to see the clean air enclosure, please do the video
I will consider it if the demand is high enough (anyone interested please thumb up FarFromLogic's comment)
DIYPerks im using a mobile version, so I can only comment that I really want that video
lets see it !
DIY Perks Just wondering how high the demand needs to be prior to it being considered, just a passing thought and of course no obligations either way
FarFromLogic kde
The moment you showed the hook, I thought:
"Is it safe?" well done
lol, Marathon man hey? Awesome movie
I had the same conversation at the dental hospital with a nurse and student dentist who was anaesthetising my gum prior to a molar removal, but injected directly into the abscess instead. You may well have heard me scream if you live in the North West UK. When I stopped crying (literally tears rolled down my face for a good three minutes) and they had mopped up various antibody pus and blood fluid releases, he was apologising profusely and looked mortified, but when I could speak, I said "Yes, oh my god yes, it's as safe as it could be" which broke the ice with the nurse in attendance, who burst out laughing then proceeded to explain it to the young student dentist. We all gotta learn and I don't bear a grudge. I'm damn sure he won't make that same mistake again at least. It was a character building level of pain so I could kinda sympathise with Dustin and the need for clove oil. I can't imagine a worse method of torture.
There is a chance those damaged sectors were caused by dust particles. I recently tried just opening and closing a hard drive that was perfectly working but no longer had any important data on it, and that alone managed to screw up one or two sectors in the partition table (probably the worst place for it to happen, though recoverable). I would definitely recommend using a clean air enclosure like the DIY one on this channel, I'm building one right now before I do this on an actual stuck drive.
The first video I saw like this a guy worked on the hard drive inside a bubble with some sort of air filter running. I don't seem to be able to locate it any longer.
'Giving it a whack'... your number one choice for repairing stuff since the stone age. Thank you, my backup drive lives again!
🤣 🤣
Thanks for this very useful video! As I was an engineer for WD, here are some responses to common comments from below:
[1] Yes, opening the drive IS a _Last_Resort_ , giving you a chance to recover your data. You shouldn't expect the drive to survive indefinitely after "the operation". Opening the drive does let in contaminants, and since the heads fly at about 1nm from the surface of the disc, there is the probability of surface damage over time. Even with the filter, the winds in the drive will knock debris loose from the filter now and then. It is also because the fly-height is so small, that the heads & media must be so darn smooth that if the disc stops (stopping the airflow under the heads), the heads will likely WELD themselves to the surface. The media surface has many layers, including protective and "smoothing" upper layers, which likely suffer damage when the heads are un-stuck. Thus, though the data may be readable, that spot on the media becomes abrasive, the scab can grow, and is prone to failure. So get your data off quick! :-)
[2] Removal & replacement of the discs themselves (say, for a busted motor) is impractical, save for experts, thus for very valuable data only. The drive they go in would have to be identical, and the parameters for head amplifier tuning would have to be transplanted to the drive's firmware with custom (factory) tools. Even so, the tracks on each disc would be very likely off-center, necessitating servo to track aggressively. If the data could be read, it's likely it would be with many soft-errors, many retries.
[3] The drive firmware DOES try its best to make due, despite difficulties. Error correction codes are pretty good in modern drives, and drives expect to handle sectors which go bad, and replace them from a pool of backup good sectors. Error recovery algorithms are elaborate, and don't easily give-up.
[4] Very minor criticism of video: Tapping the drive is less likely to un-stick the heads vs. rotating the drive. Because the head assembly is very finely balanced (keeps head seeks from shaking the drive), a linear shock (perpendicular to the head assembly axis-of-rotation) is unlikely to put an appreciable force on the actual head. Rotation, however, can work. As suddenly as you can, rotate the drive within the plane of it's discs. Both the media and heads will experience rotational forces.
[5] Some older discs of 20 years ago parked their heads on the media, in a laser-textured (for non-stick) landing zone area at the inner diameter. Even these could sometimes stick, and needed a rotation to get them loose. Modern drives park their heads on a plastic ramp (orange, in the video), which also frees up more media area for data.
[6] It's worth noting that some high performance, high capacity drives are helium-filled (better aerodynamics & heat-transfer characteristics). These drives are mostly welded closed to keep the helium in. Clearly, this wouldn't be for one of those drives.
* Finally, to repeat: this is a last resort for data recovery. Don't expect your drive to be anywhere near reliable after this procedure. Count yourself lucky if it works for long enough to get your data off. :-)
Thanks again DIY Perks for this very useful video! :-)
Paul Kooros if there is a line in the disk caused by the spindle will I be able to recover data?
Great comments!
A lesser known trick; keeping the hard drive in a freezer for a while (sealed in a freezer bag) will allow you to recover some data for a few minutes before the drive heats up again and re-sticks.
Paul Kooros l
@@haywoodjablome440 yes, much better to try this first. Thank you.
Keep in mind most of these people don't know a 1nm from a hole in the ground. Servo will be cleared out in a matter of a few ns with a piece of dust (average size ~ 500 nm)
Wow! it works... My hard drive works after giving up on 1TB of data. I hit it side ways on hard surface nothing happened. I then hit it sideways on my palm and the baby just spin.. Thanks so much man.
Where was this video in the last 7 years... could have saved a lot of drives.
the first trick saved my future generations, thnx mate
The internet is a treasure trove. Got my HDD up and running after 6 years. Exact same issue and my hard drive was a 2007 model and was powered. The minute I fixed it, HDD came back to life in a jiffy. Coming to think of it, I could've actually done it 6 years ago had I searched better. The video just came up in my recommendations. Thankful to CZcams for the first time.
Thank you for this video.
Thank you. I opened my hard drive to find this problem. I only need to recover some documents and pictures so this was great!!! ❤
Absolutely love the happiness in your voice when it starts working.
I've been waiting for this video for almost 10 years... and to think... the video itself is over 5 years old. :D
Me 15 years...
How to repair laptop hard drive visit #mydreamlab channel
WTF, same here!!!
😩😩I know right
me,,,, since i cant remember
Just a reminder...If after opening the drive and successfully accessing the data...get all your data on another storage drive and never use the broken drive ever. Otherwise, you'll risk losing more data in the future. Great video Matt!!
You could use it for secondary back up (back up of back up). That cannot be worse than having only one back up.
@@typingcat I wouldn't. The read write head passes over the disk at a distance of about a hundred atoms while the disk itself spins at several thousand RPM. If even a single mote of dust were to collide with the head it could destroy the entire read write head assembly and possibly irreparably damage the disk itself. The only way I'd be comfortable using a reassembled disk would be if the disk were repaired in a JPL cleanroom.
For those of you who might try this or try transplanting the platters, it often works as a last ditch means of recovering data. But *don’t ever return a drive that you’ve opened, back to service* - it’s an absolute guarantee that you have introduced particle matter into the drive and this can cause cumulative damage over time until the platter or the head fail fully. It’s like having just a little bit of sand in your transmission… You can be virtually guaranteed that if he ran this test on this drive under normal use on a daily or weekly basis, that there is a significant chance that he would see progressive drive failure over a short period of time and it’s a huge gamble that those gradual failures might cost some valuable data or cause a complete system or total drive failure. This definitely works to recover some data, after which it’s time to drill/hammer the drive and toss!
I've gotten sand in my transmission I was changing the fluid and I had the pan off and a big gust of wind came and blew leaves and dirt a few twigs on to the exposed valve body of the transmission. I hosed it down with diesel fuel to clean it. It was good times.
@f123raptor ~ Surely the idea is to *recover* otherwise lost data, rather than continue using the HDD?!
So it's just recover and toss away...That's honestly all i want to be able to do with a drive so perfect i think
I think you just changed the World with this one bros. thank you
0:25
That hard drive is kicking some hot club beats. That's my new jam.
Came for the data recovery info… stayed for the club anthems
it kinda sounds like if the morse code beep sound and a sci fi sound had a baby
Look up Darude - Sandstorm
Just in case you wanna hack someone’s Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram.twitter and TikTok.. contact *hackertin00* on instagram he is available for ya..he is very much reliable
@@caroltope9037 stfu bot
I dropped my external HDD, searched any videos available and stumbled to this one, and conclude this is the case for me, I pry open mine and the needle is also stucked on the platter I followed what he did in the video and luckily I recovered my data.
This video really helps, games and porn recovered lol
@TEL_02 The hard drive head, seen at 5:16.
@@b.l.o.o.d.m.o.s.e.s. Yeah the hard drive head lol sorry bout that.
@Computers4Ever1994 It was a 2.5 HDD one, like his above
By porn, you mean egg porn, right?
@@HopkinsTheMovie no no I bet it's some kind of food porn
YES THANK YOU..BY YOUR TAPPING IT ON A HARD SURFACE AS SEEN ON YOUR VIDEO...THE COVER LESS LAPTOP EXT HARD DRIVE STARTED TO WORK AND FILES WERE OK..SO I DIDNT HAVE TO OPEN IT UP..THANK YOU..EASY METHOD EXPLAINED SO WELL...
Thanks for the video. I'm going to give this a try on two of my oldest data drives that aren't spinning up. Fortunately, I work for a cleanroom certification company and we have many hoods at our facility I can use to perform this method in a "clean" environment.
I was a PC repair tech for three years while this video was out. Wish I had seen it then. Would have made countless customers very happy.
I just saved my drive using this method ... a HUGE THANK YOU DIY Perks, attempted first to build a clean chamber inside a box i broke by mistake, and fed up with all this and motivated mostly by your video i decided to give it a go in my room with bare hands, head was stuck, replaced it with a toothpick + screwdriver on the center going counterclockwise ... just had a piece of dust on the platter that i blowed gently but firmly ... it turned on, MOUNTED and i'm now retrieving all my precious life data :D THANK YOU AGAIN MATE I OWE YOU !
You Sir Are Amazing! Just recovered all the Data on an old drive that went bad over 15yrs ago 😉👍
After went to several computer services and they said my hard drive cannot be fixed, i tried this method and it worked...., thanks for the video
Thank you for this tutorial. I got the same problem and I managed to retrieve my data + I didn't spend on data retrieval. Kudos to this!
This is a life saver... my brother and I repaired his external harddisk which contains more than 500gb worth of data on a 1tb Seagate and it worked! We tried to bring it first to a local repair shop but they told us that they couldn't fix it and recommended us to try to opt for a larger company that charges roughly around $1k to restore lost data... thank goodness for this vid we were able to repair the data in the storage ourselves.. just advice for others who will try, make sure to follow the steps carefully and make sure not to get any dust on the disk itself. After that, transfer all of your data into your computer or a different storage device. This is a life saver! Thank you so much for sharing this information @DIY Perks!
Excellent video! Also worth mentioning: NEVER touch the disk platter with your fingers or anything; the skin oils (or even tiny scratches) are likely to damage that touched spot, losing that data-- which can possibly amount to megabytes of stuff!
Another point worth mentioning: Before commencing a drive salvation project like this, vacuum the desktop area first to rid the region of stray dust and particles, and also wear a face mask to help prevent a stray spittle from landing on the disk platter (for the same reasons described above.)
Thank you sooo much! You saved me a fortune! Your instructions worked perfectly on a 4TB external 2,5" Seagate HDD, after unstucking the head I could copy the whole drive to a new one without any issues and restore months of unretrievable work!
You marvellous marvellous man. I have been repairing computers for 10 years and was always afraid to take a hard disk to bits. Completely swallowed the clean room myth. You have changed my life. You plucky genius, you
Seems also like you could just buy a blower made for camera lenses/sensors and just use that to give it a blow before you put the lid back on.
How dud you fix it? any vidoe?
#ProperPerspective #CreativeSolutions #DivineBirthright #DivineFriendship | 777ADVENTURES
THose who did HDtune, Is your hard drive still 100%
That's why men are better computer programmers and electrical engineers.
I like your presentation, patience and also the way, you have generated hope for recovery of data from the old drive. One more additional point is sometimes when the drive is considered safe, packed and left in archive as back up and connected after 3-4 yrs , it not working , when we need really a kind of good power supply and clean up. The rusting due to oxidation, which is not visible locks the movable parts and this makes drive non functional and it requires a head assembly to be examined properly.
Great video.
This totally worked! Thanks for posting this video. I can’t afford data recovery, so I used the “hit it sideways onto a table surface” method.
Hi Matt, I'm Nacho from Argentina. I watched your video and the truth is I was delighted with your explanation as much as the manual work you have done. Consider me a new Latin American subscriber and thank you very much for sharing your knowledge! Greetings!
Dude, thank you! My external HDD (STEA2000400) suddenly stopped working and was not recognized by any computer or Win/Lin OS, not even through a powered SATA/USB adapter. I followed your tutorial and it worked! I was able to save all my data! I really appreciate what you've done. Seagate had referred me to their data recovery partner service that wanted to charge me ~$650 USD. I'm glad I found your channel! Keep up the great work!
Cheers!
Was your drive a 2.5 or 3.5?
@@JORGE4757S 2.5
Don't let this detract from the importance of backups. My hard drive failed last month and let's just say I would not be here today if I didn't have backups
Ironically, the reason I'm watching this video is because I'd like to recover the little bit of data I hadn't backed up for lack of space...
Wow this worked for me. I had exactly the same problem - turned out the head was jammed. I dropped my hard drive from my desk and it stopped mounting entirely. Followed this tutorial and my hard drive mounted for the first time in months - I managed to recover all 6,000 files I thought I'd lost. Thank you so much!
Buy a cheap multi-set of Torx screwdrivers (one of them will work)
This method worked for me! I had thrown a fatal blow upon my laptop, in a fit of frustration, and the HDD started clicking and everything froze. I brought it to Best Buy, and a member of the Geek Squad said it would be a minimum of $300, and upwards of $1200 to recover any data from the HDD. At that time, the HDD was not detected in the BIOS. I took it back home with me, and read many online forums about the subject and most outcomes did not look promising. I found this fantastic clip online and decided to roll the dice, and great success! Thank you my friend. You saved me a bundle! Now, to sign up for some anger management sessions.
Commenting many years later, but... The 4K of people who thumbs down this video are probably data recovery bottom feeders.
Dear, sir! Thank you, so very very much for your excellent instruction on how to repair a problematic hard drive disk! Really appreciating your language too! Clear and caring! Wishing you, sir, all the very best, always! Best Regards, from Sweden! Stay safe and healthy, in these perilous pandemic days!
Dude! Holy shit, I can't thank you enough. My external 2,5" HDD had a Headcrash and the german companies for Data-recovery offered to rescue my data for only 600€. No joke! Then I came across your tutorial and it worked absolutely fine. Thank you so much. Ben
Ronny Rakete Do you keep using that drive or did you backup and get a new one?
Holy s**t, it actually worked for me!!! The guy had said it would cost a minimum of 8000 Indian rupees and that too outside my home state said there was no chance for the disk. This is perfect. I can't thank you enough man!!!
What a clean video and audio..and loads of info! Thanks mate!
Genuinely just recovered my Samsung hard drive that was suffering the same fate as yours. Your step-by-step guide was flawless, much appreciated!
czcams.com/video/uzA4G05Ud04/video.htmlsi=2evdYm9VTNXKUi0g
This was the most helpful video. Period. This is what enabled me to recover data from a drive everyone else told me was completely dead. Thank you, sir!
Though I wouldn't try it myself, I love seeing you guys are doing this for us.
Thanks a bunch - 9 years later, still relevant. Saved my data off a 1T drive! Phew!
Oh my goodness you are a lifesaver. I just followed your instructions and saved all my files. I cannot thank you enough. Greetings and heartfelt gratitude from South Africa, Bel :)
You're welcome! I'm glad you got your files back. :)
@@DIYPerks dear Perks 9 years ago this was the first video I saw from your channel .. and the rest is history.
that reaction when it worked again!! you are a genius
"Oh my goodness".. I dunno which is scarier? That reaction or the fact you have dentistry instruments to hand!
We don't kink shame here.
Dental tools are actually very handy working with electronic circuitry. A better option would be those same tools in non-conductive plastic.
Awesome! I have had a few of these drives come through my shop, and haven't had the guts to try this! After watching and checking out others' comments. I am absolutely going to try this! Thank you!
Hi! My friend's Western Digital Elements 500gb hard drive fell from a height of about 4 and a half feet, and she had no backups of all the photos she stored in that drive. Thanks to your video, I was able to open the drive, return the spindle back to its parking mode, and after assembling the cover again, managed to start up the drive and recover all the data within. Saved her lots of money in the process. Thanks for the helpful video!
Before you fixed it what type of sound was the drive giving? My Buffalo external hard drive which stands up vertically fell over and now makes a clicking sound, this was a few years ago. I've just got a quote from a company and they are quoting me £500, it has a lot of picture memories on it but £500 is a lot of money!
OH MY GOD !!! Thank you SO much for this video !!!
I had a hard drive that crashed 7 years ago, I never threw it away because it had a lot of great memories in it and I always hoped it would one day work again. And thanks to you it does ! You can't imagine how great it feels and how exited I am !!!
Once again thank you so so much !!!
It always makes me happy to hear success stories like this! I'm glad you managed to get your data back! :)
Before you fixed it what type of sound was the drive giving? My Buffalo external hard drive which stands up vertically fell over and now makes a clicking sound, this was a few years ago probably about 7 too!. I've just got a quote from a company and they are quoting me £500, it has a lot of picture memories on it but £500 is a lot of money!
Well presented. So many of these youtube howto videos give little time, attention and effort to even speak slowly and clearly beyond a mumble, much less include all the relevant details. I'm gonna at least open up my old dead HDD and have a looksee now. Your excellent video gives me the courage.
Did u managed to copy your files back?
This video saved me $$$$. Geek Squad at Best But couldn't read the hard drive and said they would have to send it out for data recovery which starts at $250 and can go as high as $1000. After watching this video I bought an amazing computer tool kit from Amazon that had everything I needed to take the top off the hard drive (thanks for the tip about the hidden screw). Sure enough the reader was stuck on the table. 5 turns counter clockwise and the reader was seated back in the starting harness. Put the hard drive back in the computer and it's working. Hind sight is 20/20, now backing up my files!!!!! Thank you DIY Perks. So helpful.
That's brilliant. I've a selection of old hard drives which won't fire up. Absolutely nothing to lose by having a go at this. Thanks.
Did it go well?
@@thespacemanfil4921
Saved one out of, I think it was three I tried to fix. Wasn't the one I would have really liked to have saved, but still, better than nothing, and it is still working now.
Better than nothing I guess. Thanks for replying 2 years later
7:45
It's like he didn't expect to be able to actually fix it and was surprised when he did LOL
Thats where fun and happiness will happen since your experimenting
Thanks Matt for this very, very useful video. I hv been keeping my old and inoperable hdd which I hv used more 11 years ago hoping one day someone could fix it for me. Now I hv this tips from you, I’ll try. Hoping for the best.
Just fixed my hard drive Dat was broken 4 years back. Been keeping it and now it's 100% work g. Thank you Mr
Just want to say Thank you, your video saved my external hard drive and I successfully recover 99% of my data without cost me a bomb at data recovery service.
my external hard drive showing unallocated...its moving but cannot appear in computer. pls help
Is your hard drive still worked now?
@@TravelingBong same here, found any Solution?
@@Pilot_Alex no bro
Thank you soooo much! My dad managed to get his friend to give me a used 500gb HDD. I messed around with my "broken" 1TB hdd, and looked around on the web if i could fix it. I found this video, and my HDD made practically the exact same sound as yours. I opened it up, and as i thought, the arm was stuck on the platter. i rotated it, and mowed the arm off the platter, and now i'm really happy that i fixed it. Thanks.
Wow, in my house, the instant I remove the cover, dust is all over the platter. I am quite impressed how little dust is in your environment - I didn't see a single particle in your video!
Thank you sir for speaking so clearly so that I from Indonesia can understand so easily every word you said. 🙂
Good stuff, thanks. I'll have to keep this video in mind if I ever have to deal with this issue.
I know that this video is pretty old, but it was able to fix the problem that I had with my hard drive. Thank You so much.
I began to notice that my wife was beginning to look secretive about her phone. Also the chemistry was not there anymore because most times she is on her phone. I related this with a friend and he recommended me to *hackertin00* on Instagram.I contacted him and I was made to know that my wife was cheating on me, Tho I was scared about the process... But he surprised me with the results.
Do you have any experience with the head actually resting where it should, but once you start up the drive, it "latches on", but then keeps jumping back off and after about 3-5 times, the drive just... well it doesn't turn off but it stops spinning and becomes super quiet?
I can't express in words how much I love you for this... I went to a recovery data center and they were gonna charge me 800€+.. I saw your video and luckily I got the same problem as you, and in less than half an hour doing what you advised, I am now recovering my info successfully! Thank you very much
Luis Febrero Great to hear!!
DIY Perks Hi, I have a 250GB WD 3.5" HDD that doesn't have that issue shown on here, but it does turn on and sounds like it starts spinning but after 0.8-1.3 seconds when it reach certain speed it start clicking and do it for 3-4 times, then it sounds like it completely turn off.
Contingently, Anandtech made an experiment more than year ago using the exact same HDD and with exactly the same problem as mine, the author tried to do an plate(s) transplant and failed at it, after that I feared to try it myself and kept the HDD for when I can afford the data recovery, you you think it would work for me?
Thank you.
EDIT: I found the article, mine is the one with the black case.
www.anandtech.com/show/7330/hardware-tricks-how-to-not-fix-a-crashed-hard-drive
What did you end up doing? My Buffalo external hard drive which stands up vertically fell over and now makes a clicking sound, this was a few years ago. I've just got a quote from a company and they are quoting me £500, it has a lot of picture memories on it but £500 is a lot of money!
THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO!! I backed up all of my laptop's data to an external hard drive in preparation of reformatting, and then after I reformatted the laptop, I DROPPED the hard drive and it stopped working! I was so upset, but came across this video, bought the proper size screwdriver, and a few days later was able to repair the hard drive and recover all of my data! It was exactly this issue. You're a lifesaver!!!
Matt, I believe this will help me recover most of my data - Thank you!
Great video. Very good info. It was concise and to the point and I was able to save my Samsung Hard Drive. Thank You for sharing this.
You sir are a legend Thank you your video has saved 300,000 personal photos with your clearly & well explained video in the past I would have thrown the Ext HD away..I can’t thank you enough! Even better I never lost a single photo..
You Brits are the best. One of your brethren has been helping me keep our wonderful Xerox printer going for years now via his website and amazing tweaks. Love your go for it attitude. My iMac just suffered this same lockup so I will be trying this for sure as I did NOT do any recent BU. Thanks so much and I'll let you know how it goes. I suspect you don't recommend continuing to use the old drive except to recover the data.
I've been waiting for this a life time lol 😂
Dude. Dude! I've got to try this tomorrow. Such an excellent presenter.
I owe you so much for this video. I stupidly had 2 months of school work, hundreds of hours of work, all stored on one hard drive. I thought it was all gone, including term end projects, side projects and everything else there is. I tried everything and I found your video. It gave me hope that taking it apart was the best choice. Upon inspection, I had the same problem as you and I was able to reverse the problem. Booted it up, backed up everything and everything was back. I was honestly in a state of depression and stress over losing my drive.
One thing to note, we both had Seagate hard drives. I am sticking to WD in the future as my other hard drive has seen much worse and the only thing to go was the USB cable. Seagate drives aren't reliable in my mind and I will not be trusting my important files on one. The drive I just fixed has been retired to a back up drive inside my computer which I will be backing up my work to every night. I'm considering online storage since hard drives can be so delicate at times.
Joad Hughes That's great to hear!
DIY Perks Hi Joad . What you suggest to do in case of clicking noise problem ?
Seagate's reliability is down ever since they bought Maxtor -- the HD maker that went bankrupt because all the crappy hard drive they were producing. The most reliable ranking used to be Hitachi, WD, then Seagate. WD has since acquired Hitachi -- hopefully the Hitachi brand HD reliability is not affected.
Online storage is a good idea. I told my sister to back up her stuff online but she didn't and then her drive crashed about a couple years ago -- I was able to recover 95% of her files (lucky the drive failed in a non-dramatic fashion), now she backs up her files. I got another sister who also don't back up her files as I suggested. I will just have to wait for her to lose her files before she would learn I suppose.
***** I agree totally. Only use the best, most reliable, least used drive as a backup, not a drive that could fail at any time. For really important data, do a second backup on alternate days such as Monday and Thursday. At home I use an external drive to back up everything I have created since the last external backup and USB drives to backup newly created work in addition to the work saved on hard drive. So I usually end up with 3 copies of the files. Overkill, perhaps but I haven't lost anything for many years. Old drives (1990's) used to last 10 years and have deteriorated after 2000, so now it's not uncommon to have one fail after 3 years. CD's/DVDs are not good for long term storage because of disk rot. Some micro SD cards recently failed. The original promise of computer data storage being for ever has not been realised.
Do you really think it's a good idea to make it a Backup drive, you really need confidence in your backups?
Thanks for the tutorial, I was able to repair friend's HDD and get some of the data back for him! He dropped his portable HDD and got the head stuck on the platter but it wasn't as bad as yours.
you are definitely sent from God almighty. My Hard drive fell down about a month now and i tried all i know. i decide to take a chance and open my western digital like you showed in the video, did it just as you showed. screwed it up back and boom i can access my drive and my info. i amm so so soo grateful for this video. thank you
Great video, not sure why only 112K likes, but great video never the less and you have helped people SAVE thousands of dollars.
One addition comment about the dust particles landing on the disk platter is that if you try and blow them away, you send tiny bits of spittle directly onto the platter.
Instead try using compressed air and spray a short blast about 12 or more inches AWAY from the platter it would achieve the same results without the spittle.
I cannot thank you enough, I just did what you committed in the video and the harddrive works now, I managed to recover all the important files lost for two and a half year.
I always been told the harddrive is going to explode (exaggeration) if I ever open it in a dusty environment but it works just fine now! And it has run for several hours and still running! Thanks again
That's great news! :) Well done!
DIY Perks cdbjjjjkpu
Kakarot1994 He said it was Torx screwdriver size T6, they are cheap just go to a store that sells screwdrivers and pick one up for 5 euros or something, optionally take your harddrive with you and try the various ones out
Dude, you just saved my digital life! For a combination of reasons, ALL of my precious files were on a laptop HDD in a compact USB enclosure. While connected to my working laptop, the drive accidentally fell, only about 16", down to a carpeted floor, but that was enough to kill it. When I found that it wouldn't spin up I thought for sure it was a goner till I watched your video. With nothing to lose, I opened it up and did exactly what you did - moved the heads off the disc stack and back to the parked position. Reassembled it, fired it up and, PRESTO!, my digital life was restored. Thank you SO MUCH for this video!!
Holy cow! I have discarded many dead drives in my day that were "unrecoverable". One of my clients had a 500GB Seagate drive with client tax data that they had not backed up and it was humming. Before finding your video this is not something I would have ever dared. However, I successfully "unstuck" the read/write head, spun up the drive and recovered several years of tax data for them. Thanks SO MUCH for your video!
I bumped it on a table just like you explainedin the first minute of the video and omg it worked. Thank you. I was afraid I would have to rip it apart and conduct a surgery on those super fragile parts.
Hello.First of all, thank you so so so much from Turkey! You clearly made my day. Thanks to you I saved my entire picture album and data, and also money. My WD 1tb external hard drive disk was damaged and could not be detected by my and my wife’s computer. I sent it to a computer technician and he told me that he replaced the board of it but it did not work. And recommended me to sent the disk to a data recovery company. However, I saw your video and decided to apply it. Despite the fact that my hard drive head was not in the middle of the platter and it was in its original place, I moved it forward and back. After I mounted all the pieces back (with the hard drive head on its original place), I connected it to my computer and it worked like a charm. And a copule of minutes ago, I copied all my data to my computer from the external hard drive. It is still working.
Thank you so much again. I will recommend this vidoe to my friends and share it on facebook and other favorite websites.
selamlar *****. benim gönderdiğim bilgisayarcı benim disk için "kafa atıyor" demişti. aynı şey midir bilemem. yandı derken board'u yandıysa 30-40 TL'ye değiştiriyorlar sanırım. Benimkini değiştirmişti ama bir işe yaramadı. Ben de o kadar para vermek istemiyordum ve bir şey yapmadan kenara da atmak istemedim. Sonuçta, madem o kadar para vermen imkansız, o riski almaya değer. Sonuçta o parayı veremeyeceksen zaten hard disk senin için ölmüş demektir. Onun yerine içini açıp gösterdiği gibi hdd başını oynatmak senin için bir şans olacaktır. Yalnız şöyle bir durum var, ben bilgileri kurtardıktan sonra hdd'yi yeniden taktım bu sefer çalışmadı. Dolayısıyla, hdd'yi çalıştırabilirsen zaman kaybetmeden tüm bilgilerini kurtarmanı tavsiye ederim.
+mustpunk Just finished watching the video - and your additional experience gives me added confidence in my upcoming attempt. Good to hear the method worked for you. Hoping for a similiar success. Cheers.
***** Haven't tried it yet - maybe next weekend when I work up the courage, lol.
+SilentKnight43 i hope you the best.
+SilentKnight43 Did it work? I'm in the same situation just about to start doing surgery to my 1TB seagate drive .. I'm very nervous and could really use some advice if it did work .. cheers
Thank you so much DIY Perks. You would be surprised how this video resolved my issue by accident. I was looking for a solution for "Boot Device Not Found" Error and tried all available on Google & CZcams but could't find a solution. Finally, as i was about to give up while i let CZcams play on my other computer. Guess what? God is great, auto play brought u to my screen. First i never thought it was gonna work but i gave u the benefit of the doubt and tried your method as a last resort. Guess what? It was the same problem as on your video and used the same Technic, and now IT WORKS. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK U SO MUCH. I did it for the first time and now i learn a new thing thanks to u.
Great to hear! Glad you were brought to my video and that you got your data back. Don't forget to back it all up now. :)
DIY Perks gijigihgu
beruu berd really? my Dell is doing same thing today I should give it a try then. I pulled out the hard drive but didn't open it further. I will take my chances now. tks for sharing the success.
lol. you sound like me. i've had this video #1 on my watch later list AND my (clicking external) hard drive right there for months now. i just have this feeling like... it's not gonna work. so i delay and procrastinate (all the time) in giving it a try. but i will, dammit. i will!
BUT, i must say the 'dislikes' 700 to 'likes' 28,000 fills me with a little optimism. and the dude seems affable, personable, reasonably intelligent and that's gotta count for something...
so, did yours work? wait, don't tell me!
...actually, yeah. tell me.
It feels like you are overthinking things a little. I think he meant that figuratively.
Great work. Mine had the same issue. It was an external drive wd my passport ultra. I moved it back just like you did here in the video.
Thanks for the information. Your step by step instructions are clear and slow for someone who has no idea about this kind of stuff.
Brilliant video - many thanks. Have recovered some lost data and saved several quid in the process. 10/10.
Frickin Thank God for people like you. This helped me recover a 2TB hard drive.
+PixlSwift It helped you recover the data, which in most cases, is worth more than the actual drive. That 2TB drive is damaged, and very prone to future problems. It's basically junk. So here's what you do next:
- Send it back for a warranty if its still covered. Most countries have a minimum 1yr warranty law on sold goods.
- If its more than a year, see if you can find the box, as some re-badged drives give you an extended warranty (2+ yrs). If you don't have the box or receipt, see their website.
- And if that fails open its casing and look for the Serial Number of the actual drive, and see if it is covered under international warranty for the actual drive from WD etc.
- And if that is also expired (old drive!) then you may want to buy a similar drive off the internet, swap them, then claim a new one from the new warranty. It sounds devious but it is ethical and just, since most drive failures are the fault of the manufacturer and not the user. I don't condone you doing this is it is a user fault such as a heavy drop, water damage, magnet damage, static or surge damage.
And if you fail to have your money refunded or the goods refurbished, the next best thing would be to use the drive for non-important uses. I recommend plugging it to your TV and playback some movies, or to record Live TV. If the drive fails, you won't be losing precious data, and can watch the video content through other sources.
+Kangal the point is, that the last screw is made under sticker so they can find out if you opened the drive or not, and warranty simply becomes invalid
HELP. What does one do when the only screw turns out to be sealed? Looks like they melted plastic over the screw (or maybe the screw itself is plastic) and there is no way to get a screwdriver on it This is an external DELL/Seagate 2Tb FreeAgent GoFlex made in China.
THose who did HDtune, Is your hard drive still 100%
@@ekinteko If taking back to the store , the FIRST thing to do is wipe the drive so no other person can get his files.
Wish I had seen this sooner!! I just tossed two desktops and a laptop in October. I would have tried this on all of them.
Bummer, but thanks. I have one left, and I'll try this repair on that. Great video, and I've now suscribed!
Very interesting content. Thanks! Will try this to my old and not working HDDs.
Interesting and presented in a logical straightforward manner. I have the cover of my SCSI drive loosened, and was looking for a technique to free the head. I had heard that it was better to spin the head as you did. So, here I go into the unknown. ( I'm kidding, I have had HDs apart, but never with the intent to get them running).
What a star! Efficient, articulate and a seemingly thoroughly nice chap to boot! Thanks for the video.
I'm a HDD, I confirm this is correct. I'm a big fan of you Matt, wonderful to see a young and baby faced Matt 👶
Thank you! I've just resurrected a 3.5" Quantum Fireball (1996) with a couple of little knock on the edges. The DOS scandisk utility didn't find any damaged cluster during the surface scan!!!
Thanks ever so much for this tip. My portable drive had all my work on it and this got it running again. Backing up onto a new driv enow.
DIY Perks in a few years:
Today we are going to fix a few transistors on a micro processor.
It really worked for me after I look and try some tutorials, yours is the one that worked. Owe you a lot.
DUDE!!!......years later and you're still saving lives!!! Thank you so much
and even after 2 years you wrote this comment. he's a legend
IT WORKED!!!!!! Thank you so much man, i really appreciate all the help. Finally i have all of my old backups with me again. :-)
Your'e awesome man!!! Keep doing what you do.