No Bootable device

[VeroG]

Hello,
My computer froze and when I restart it I get the no bootable device error message. The hardrive makes a weird sound... Is there anything I can do to retrieve my files that were on the hardrive? I tried SpinRite and it doesn't work... Please help!!

 

[price_th]

When you say weird sound, clicking?

 

[nullifier]

When you say weird sound, clicking?

Agreed, if you are hearing a clicking or scratching sound, that is indicative of hard drive failure. Do you have another PC that you can hook the HD to as slave (not a boot device)?

 

[scout_03]

when you will have acces to your drive copy only the most valuable data from it because it could fail at anytime

 

[VeroG]

its not a clicking sound... It sounds like its trying to start up but it just wont. I removed the hardrive from my laptop and installed it in an external case. When connected to my PC, I only see the drive when I open computer management but its not able to read what's on it. I didn't drop it or anything, it just stopped working while it was on.

 

[scout_03]

look like your out of luck your will need another drive i doubt you could recover anything from this one

 

[nullifier]

Yeah mechanical failure is pretty hard to get around without a clean room and data recovery expertise. I have gotten a drive that was not working to work again by replacing the board on the drive (mechanical components were left alone), but that requires finding the exact same model of drive so you have a matching board.

If the data is that important, it couldn't hurt to try.

 

[VeroG]

Oh well.. Thank you all for your help! I tried to find a magical solution but I guess its just dead...

 

[price_th]

Ok, This is what you want to do. This may sound harsh but it works. You need to have the drive out of any enclosure. You're going to power the drive, and at that moment you need to slap the drive to the desk from about 1 inch kind of hard. It sounds crazy but it works. Once you have access get your data off as fast as you can. You may not get another chance. I've had this work a few times. As for all that clean room crap, I've done it. Problem is the failure is usually at the platter level which requires heavy duty data recovery methods that cost a lot of $$ as in three 0's