Squeezing the last out of a dead HD.

Alrighty... I was fixing a new laptop for a friend of mine.. His sister's laptop was making the click of death, and she didnt want to buy a new hd, so I had to take it out of my friends old one.. Both were similar laptops, and It was 0 problem to do.. So, his laptop has a cracked screen, and now, no hard drive... so, he dosent want it... haha, his gift to me was the parts machine. Anywhoo, But.. I want to use the "click of death" hard drive.. From what I can tell, when It cant read a sector on the hard drive, it runs and has a head crash trying to find it.. then returns back, and tries again...

I'm not sure what's causing this more, weither it be a defect on the main of the drive, or where the file table is.... Here's my reasoning.

I can run the hard drive, and the plates are spinning fine, when I try to read/write to a certain part of the hd, the clicking begins again.. GRRR

However, for some reason, I decieded to try reformatting as a fat32 instead of ntfs... OMG suddenly, I can load windows xp, and manage to get halfway through the setup, *Just a little past entering the key* without any issue!

So, I'm figureing, I write data over the "Problematic" area, and just put a partition under it that I Can use.

Any thoughts?

hehe, I'm poor, and Have too much free time. heheh

Ps: The cover of the hd was stoping the hd from spinning up, so I had to remove the cover.. I didnt have the right tool, so I just ripped the cover off... lol

(^^;?(You'd better not to use it, but sometimes good lucks.)

First, You should diagnose it. And try to wipe it, then partition out bad area.

http://forums.devshed.com/t166128/s.html

http://forums.devshed.com/t161306/s.html

if you have REMOVED the cover of the hdd, then dont bother. you have ruined it already. the inner atmosphere is made as sterile as the moon. after you open dust get in. and YOU CANT REMOVE THEM. so it has to go to the dumps. the gap between the platter and the head is 1/100 of a human hair. so its done for.

lol... where did you learn all this Arkantos? I want a link

i can do chip level repairing on varities of computer components. and as i do data recovery on a commercial basis, i get to break open a lot of hard drives under controlled conditions. i dont think i would be able to give you links as u ask them, but i think googling on the topic will return some fruitful sites.

i learnt all these only to the fact that i was driving a mouse before i drove a tricycle. . so i think its all in the blood.

(^^;(I can't believe he went that far. But ...)

Only a site cannot makes a man Arkantos. Take a screw-driver for first step.

Though It is said that classical IDE didn't mind such a thing and allowed the air and a few of dust. Recent thecnology is very severe for amateur.

heh... mouse before tricycle... Well whatever... don't really need to know it anyways!