External hard drive issue

[Tony 1]

Evening all. Just after some advice please as I don't know much about computers etc I have a Toshiba 320gb external hard drive which I've had for years now. I've plugged it into my laptop and the drive powers up but does not run. I've took it apart and the hard drive inside is a WD3200 IDE drive so I've bought a data convertor device to recover the files and the laptop finds the drive but I cannot open it as it says I've to insert a drive and the hard drive stops spinning as if it's not being read. I noticed quite a lot of clicking from the drive whilst it was spinning/running so I removed the lid to have a look and the arm that that slides over the disc appeared faulty, sort of clicking backwards and forwards whilst the disc is spinning. Can you purchase these arms separately (sorry i don't know the technical term for them) as I really need the files off the hard drive as they are my pension documents which are important or is the drive totally knackered? Apologies for the long winded post

 

[RandomGrinch]

Now you've disassemble it, I'm afraid it's nothing more than a paperweight and a nice neodinium magnet.

There is a slight possibility that the disk could be recovered from a very expensive recovery service, but taking it apart may have been fatal.

 

[Tony 1]

Now you've disassemble it, I'm afraid it's nothing more than a paperweight and a nice neodinium magnet.

There is a slight possibility that the disk could be recovered from a very expensive recovery service, but taking it apart may have been fatal.

Really

 

[foxhole]

Clicking often means death for HD .My pensions all online , doesn’t pension company have you info .

 

[RandomGrinch]

Really

The read head of the drive floats about 3nm above the surface of the platter. If a dust particle comes between the platter and the head, the drive can 'crash' - causing scoring on the platter and data loss.
Recovery companies usually open up drives in a clean room (although not strictly necessary), to avoid any dust entering the drive.
As @foxhole says, a constantly clicking drive is usually terminal, but recoverable by a specialist company.
Taking the drive apart may have made the job far more difficult and compromised more data.

 

[Diver Fred]

Does the external HDD case have 2 connector ports on it? 1, as square one (or if new a flat one) and 2, a round port. If so then you should have a power supply that plugs into the round port.
The noise you heard sound like the HDD didn't have enough power constantly to run.

But as RandonGrinch says - having taken the HDD to pieces it is now a paperweight (i.e. FUBBed)!

 

[Tony 1]

Does the external HDD case have 2 connector ports on it? 1, as square one (or if new a flat one) and 2, a round port. If so then you should have a power supply that plugs into the round port.
The noise you heard sound like the HDD didn't have enough power constantly to run.

But as RandonGrinch says - having taken the HDD to pieces it is now a paperweight (i.e. FUBBed)!

Yeah it has a power supply but for some reason it wouldn't even start up but when the drive was removed and connected to the little recovery device it started up but couldn't open the drive on the laptop but looking at the advice it's now knackered.

 

[mattylad]

I'm afraid you fekked it by taking it apart.
Nothing good can come of it now unless you pay lots of ££

 

[DiyNutJob]

You might be able to use the magnets for something.

 

[Koolpc]

You might be able to use the magnets for something.

Fishing maybe?