If your computer cannot boot all the way into Windows, there is a chance your hard drive is dead.  And if you listen closely to where your hard drive is enclosed, you might here the unfortunate clicking noise.  The clicking noise means that your hard drive has a bad or failed part inside of it.  Typically, it could mean that the head of the drive that holds your files could have failed or is partially failing.  Or the read/write actuator arm has moved and is coming down on the head, causing a noise. 

If one part has failed, there is usually a chance of recovering the files by replacing this part.  You should enlist a professional data recovery company for this.  Without the proper dust-free environment and machinery, you could further damage your hard drive, rendering any type of recovery useless. 

The difficult data recovery subjects are when one of the hard drive’s parts collides with another part.  When that happens, the important parts, such as the platters might be affected.  The platters are practically the only part that is irreplaceable since it contains the data.  When a part fails such as the head, and if it has a domino effect of falling down on the platters, the platters could break in pieces and your files will be unrecoverable.

In sum, if your drive doesn’t have a domino effect, and your platters are in good shape, your files have a good chance of recovery.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Tech Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.