It’s Dead…Right?

[Spidey]

So, I went to do my weekly LAN backup…

I power up my external drive (500GB Maxtor USB) the LED does not flash, like it always does, and you can hear a faint…

Tic…Tic…Tic…Tic…

I already checked the power supply, but only volts…not under load.

Before I get carried away, can it be confirmed as a dead parrot, or is there still some hope. If I plug it into my machine I get the obligatory “beep” but that’s all, no drive shows up. And the machine won’t boot with it connected.

[Krom]

Can you hear the drive spin up before it starts clicking, or does it start clicking immediately as soon as you connect the power? Does it click if you power it up but don't connect it to a PC?

It is possible that the power supply has failed and testing it with a different power brick (or a lead out of your PC if it runs off 5v or 12v) is a free way to test. I suppose you could also try giving the PCB on the drive a blast from a can of compressed air, although I haven't seen that bring a drive back yet.

Generally I'd say the "Click of Death" is the perfect description of this type of event though, unfortunately.

[Spidey]

No, the drive never spins up, just starts ticking as soon as you hit the switch.

I will test the drive with a bench supply when I get a chance, but the power supply seems fine. (12.14 volts at 100 ma)

I know that is not enough load to do a proper test…I’ll get the proper load when I have time. And, when I get my hands on a 5mm connector, I’ll do a bench test on the drive.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any spare supplies of that type on hand.

As far as dust, that’s probably not an issue…I keep that drive locked up in a cabinet, and it only comes out once a week.
(for a few hours)

[Ferno]

don't 'test the drive'.

get the computer fired up, get a data cloning application ready to go, plug in the drive and copy everything over immediately.

you don't have a lot of time left on that drive and the sooner you get that data transferred, the better.

[Krom]

Perhaps you should skim less Ferno, the drive already doesn't work at all, cloning it is impossible unless you can get it to show up first.

[Ferno]

Krom, i've never known a drive to start moving the heads before the drive spins up. If by some chance the heads HAVE moved when the platters are still, it most likely happened when the drive was outside its mounting area.

from http://www.hddoctor.net/hard-disk-details-3/

The first thing a hard drive will do after it receives power is check for a return status from it’s chips to make sure the electronics are functioning. Then the drive will begin the self-check of its parts and wait for a return status. If both status checks are returned then the drive continues on to the next step and spin up the spindle.

The drive begins to spin the spindle or as you would see, the platters begin to revolve. When the platters begin to revolve the air flow around the platter creates a force that is called an air bearing. This air bearing will fling off debris on the platters such as any dust particles or metal fragments from the standard operation of the drive. This air bearing also causes the plastic locking arm mechanism to move out of the way as soon as there is enough air flow for the head to float. Without that airflow the arm is locked in place and will not move over the platter. This is a way to protect the platter from the head touching the platter and causing physical damage.

so spidey, get that problem drive into either a USB or sata enclosure, and start pulling data as soon as you plug it into the PC. DiskGenius will see it, even if your PC doesn't.

[Spidey]

There is no point in trying to save the data on this drive, because it is a backup drive. The logical option is to replace it and simply perform another backup.