I could recommend trying a better software utility (like Alsoft's "DiskWarrior"), but if the hard drive has a mechanical and/or electronic malfunction that is preventing the read/write heads from moving, all bets are off. For any software solution to be effective, the drive must be functioning and the platter(s) must not be damaged. The repetitive sound that you've described would suggest that your Iomega drive has a mechanical problem. You could try knocking it firmly with your knuckle, to see if the heads jar loose and read the boot blocks. Some users have placed their hard drives in a freezer for a short period of time (I'm not recommending that), and gotten them to work afterward. Even if resurrected, one should immediately back up all data to another medium, because once the drive has become unstable, permanent failure is probable. I wouldn't recommend buying an Iomega external drive because I suspect that they don't manufacture their own hard drives, but outsource that component. You don't really know what HDD is inside the enclosure. If you buy a Western Digital external hard drive, you know what's in the case. As a last resort, you can pay for professional data recovery (which is very expensive), wherein the drive is dismantled in a dust-free environment and damaged parts are replaced, so that it can be made functional to recover the data on it. As many of us have discovered, it's always better to back up to more than one device, just in case unexpected failure of one occurs.
gixxer26
Level 1
(0 points)
