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I have a Dell Dimension 4600. My drive was an sata WD360GD. It was the main one and the computer just stopped finding it. It clicks too.

1)I got a serial ata card (connects sata drives to motherboards without them). And tried plugging it in to 2 other comps, still won't find drive, (whereas a year ago it did work)

Please I really need this info, any help would be appreciated.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by sarkar

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Brief, practical guidance based on 's original report and the replies from , , and — focused on what to do next that preserves the chances of recovery and what a safe DIY attempt looks like.

Start by documenting everything: copy the drive label (model, part/serial, firmware), note the exact sequence of events and hardware you tried (adapters, hosts), and photograph the drive and PCB. Package the drive in an antistatic bag and stop powering it unless you are ready to image — repeated spin attempts can worsen mechanical problems. Record any BIOS/OS error messages exactly as shown; recovery labs will ask.

If attempting a controlled DIY image (only when you accept risk), use a Linux live USB and GNU ddrescue to make a forensic image to a separate, large destination drive. Work in two passes: a quick first pass without retries to capture good sectors, then a second pass with limited retries to try stubborn sectors. Example sequence:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install gddrescue
sudo ddrescue -f -n /dev/sdX /mnt/DEST/image.img /mnt/DEST/ddrescue.log
sudo ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdX /mnt/DEST/image.img /mnt/DEST/ddrescue.log

Replace /dev/sdX and /mnt/DEST appropriately. Keep the .log so you can stop/resume. If the drive fails to appear to the OS or sounds markedly worse, stop and seek professional help.

If you choose a recovery lab, provide the documentation and the ddrescue log (if present). Ask about their evaluation fee, turnaround, whether they use a certified cleanroom and a “no data, no charge” policy, and what parts (e.g., donor heads/firmware work) they perform. Avoid DIY PCB/head swaps unless you have a cleanroom and experience — those attempts often reduce success rates. If the data is not critical, replacing the drive and improving backups is the least risky route.

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Member Avatar for DellOutreach

Hi-

My name is John, and I work at Dell headquarters as a support analyst. I thought I might try to help you out, but given your situation, what I can provide is rather limited.

When a hard drive behaves as you're describing, it is generally a bad idea to try to get the drive to spin up, as by doing so, you may be causing further damage to the platters (where the data is actually stored). Every time you try, you could be destroying more of your data, literally. I would highly recommend you take that drive to a data recovery professional, and hope for the best. The service generally isn't cheap, but if that data is irreplaceable and important, it may be worth the cost.

If you only need to recover a couple of small files, one trick might work: put the drive in the freezer overnight, and try to boot from it when it is frozen. That sometimes works, but I'd only recommend you try it if you only need to pull a file or two from the drive. If you have 10 GB of pictures on that drive, don't even bother. Take it to a professional instead.

John
Dell Customer Advocate

Member Avatar for sarkar

Nice answer there John. I loved the freezer part. But don't u think getting prices down these days is compromising quality?

Member Avatar for big frog

I have a Dell Dimension 4600. My drive was an sata WD360GD. It was the main one and the computer just stopped finding it. It clicks too.

1)I got a serial ata card (connects sata drives to motherboards without them). And tried plugging it in to 2 other comps, still won't find drive, (whereas a year ago it did work)

Please I really need this info, any help would be appreciated.

I have a similar problem, and I may have a partial solution:
a program called uneraser (www.uneraser.com) has a dos version for bootable floppy. With this program I can access most, if not all, of a 400gb sata drive on my sata-usb adapter. If I try to access the drive in windows xp I get into a loop which requires a restart.

You might be able to recover some data with that program.

Member Avatar for sarkar

Get another hard drive. Install another OS on it. Plug this hard drive as an external and try to recover data. I did it the same way from 4 of my hard drives which crashed. And get your power supply checked. My power supply was bad and had to get 4 hard drives RMAed because of it.

Cheers,
sarkar

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