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Hard Disk Failure
Bob The Monkey
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
so
I have a 500GB IDE hard disk (can't honestly remember the make) mounted in a cheap external USB enclosure. About twenty minutes ago, a wire it was leaning on shifted, and it fell a short distance (maybe half a centimetre) to the table. Immediately the read/write light on the back turned red. I turned the enclosure off, then on again, but rather than being greeted by the usual high pitched sound of a hard disk booting up, I heard what sounded like a low pitched alarm, raising and lowering slightly in pitch.
Now, I have no idea what that sound means, except that it's certainly not the 'clicking' that many people associate with hard drive failure. The question is: what does it mean, and what is it likely to result in me having to do to get my data back? I'm hoping it's just a case of the enclosure failing: it was an utterly cheap, made in China kind of affair, and after a bit of research on hard drive failure the sound doesn't seem to be any of the ones associated with failure of the disk itself. Any help, guys?
Footnote: Please, no telling me I should have backed up, that I shouldn't have had it leaning on anything, that I shouldn't have moved it while it was in operation... nobody knows that better than me at this point, and I'm certain never to let this happen again. I think I'm probably in a state of shock (considering the importance of the data I'll have lost if the hard drive has indeed bitten the dust), so go easy on me!
I have a 500GB IDE hard disk (can't honestly remember the make) mounted in a cheap external USB enclosure. About twenty minutes ago, a wire it was leaning on shifted, and it fell a short distance (maybe half a centimetre) to the table. Immediately the read/write light on the back turned red. I turned the enclosure off, then on again, but rather than being greeted by the usual high pitched sound of a hard disk booting up, I heard what sounded like a low pitched alarm, raising and lowering slightly in pitch.
Now, I have no idea what that sound means, except that it's certainly not the 'clicking' that many people associate with hard drive failure. The question is: what does it mean, and what is it likely to result in me having to do to get my data back? I'm hoping it's just a case of the enclosure failing: it was an utterly cheap, made in China kind of affair, and after a bit of research on hard drive failure the sound doesn't seem to be any of the ones associated with failure of the disk itself. Any help, guys?
Footnote: Please, no telling me I should have backed up, that I shouldn't have had it leaning on anything, that I shouldn't have moved it while it was in operation... nobody knows that better than me at this point, and I'm certain never to let this happen again. I think I'm probably in a state of shock (considering the importance of the data I'll have lost if the hard drive has indeed bitten the dust), so go easy on me!
Bob The Monkey on
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