The vocabulary of a hard disk is limited. By the time it is making noise, it is also already beginning to fail. Click, beep, buzz, scrape: each sound from the hard drive identifies which part of the drive is malfunctioning, directs you towards what type of repair should be made, and instructs you to immediately turn off the power, as all sounds have a platter surface cost for hearing them out longer.
Tick-tick-ticking: This sound indicates that the heads are scanning the surface of the platters looking for the reference tracks that the heads cannot locate: head failure, the most common. Beeping or whining like music: The motor attempting to move heads that will not separate themselves from the platters or bearings seizing: commonly caused by being knocked around and portable usage. Flat buzzing followed by complete silence: An attempt at spinning up was abandoned: spindle or power-stage issues. Scraping or grinding: The emergency tier: something is physically contacting the platter surface during operation and each cycle is removing data mechanically.
Grind-type drives need to be immediately turned off when grinding begins and never turned on again. There's no judgement required here.
Each of these repairs requires mechanical labour: open the drive, swap out bad heads for good ones from a matching donor unit that has been identified based upon an exact match of your model number and revision number, free stuck components so they can park properly, and finally (this is why we do this) create a single, patient image on a DeepSpar prior to transplant wear. Once repaired, all subsequent operations will be done on the copy. The drive does not have to be functional ever again; it simply needs to be readable once.
The problem is how it arrives. The drive that clicked five times is normally recovered; the one that you have restarted for a fortnight will arrive with all of its disks pre-scratched.
The freezer: condensation on platters adds water damage to head damage. A firm tap: relocates fault, gouges surface occasionally. Opening it for a look: dust + fingerprints on surfaces machined to nanometres. Software for recovery: hours of forced reads through exact mechanism that is failing. Each fix survives because someone got lucky once: the drives on our bench are the other 99%.
If one single drive is affected it costs a fixed £300 + VAT regardless of the type or extent of failure. The rare chip-level exception is quoted in writing first. We offer a free diagnostic before any work begins and quote all costs in writing before proceeding. Most jobs will cost nothing if your files don't come back. There are no hourly rates, evaluation fees, or percentages of file value charged.
Still very common, still usually recoverable: the drive tried to calibrate, could not, then took itself offline and stopped further wear. The silence does not change the diagnosis: failed heads need donor parts. What matters is that you do not test the quiet hour after hour.
There is occasionally a case of a low-power USB drive "click" due to lack of power (worth one shot on a mains-powered hub or another port). If the clicking continues even when supplied with constant power, this is now mechanical, and a second attempt is where the damage bill starts. That's it: just do one good test and then quit.
Honestly, you've gone way too far: the number of allowed clicks was zero when the first click happened. Most drives tested only a few times (or less) are routinely recovered. But drives that have been clicked repeatedly (sometimes daily) for weeks arrive with platter damage that no donor heads can read through. Whatever position you're at right now, stop adding to it today!
Not always, but grinding against the disk is the only type of noise with no grace period. The quicker the disk stops spinning after contact with the disk surface, the better chance your data has of being recovered. If you turn off power immediately after the scraping noise, there is a realistic chance of recovering some or most of your data. We'll inspect the device for free and give you a truthful assessment as to what data remains on the disks.
Before you drop your device off or post it, please get a quote from us by phone or using the form first. Then there are two honest routes for dropping off and delivery. No vans. Hand in the device at Tay House, 300 Bath Street (right at Charing Cross, two minutes off the M8) Monday to Friday, 9am–5:30pm, without need of an appointment. Or wrap the device well and send by insured, tracked post from anywhere in the UK. All work is done in-house by our own engineers. We have documentation of the complete chain of custody and your data never leaves the UK.
What a clicking hard drive looks like internally and how we extract data from devices such as this. Read it →
Once you know which part made the clicking noise, your actions determine whether you'll be successful or unsuccessful. Clicking hard drive recovery for Glasgow: shut down and padded, and brought to us in Charing Cross or sent by post ASAP.