I recently had a bit of a mishap with my 4 TB WD external hard drive that I mainly used for my PlayStation. It was going great until a friend accidentally knocked it over while it was plugged in. The drive looks fine on the outside, but I'm worried about the internal damage because ever since then, I've heard some strange clicking noises from it. I've disconnected it for now, but I'm trying to update my MacBook from High Sierra to Mojave, and I've been told I need to back up my data using Time Machine. I can't afford a new HDD of the required size, so I tried to format the old WD drive using Disk Utility, but it keeps failing and making those clicking sounds. I'm hoping for advice on whether it's possible to repair it or if I should just buy a new one and let this drive go. Thanks for any help!
2 Answers
Those clicking sounds are definitely a bad sign, often referred to as the "click of death." It's likely that your HDD is damaged internally due to the drop. If you feel comfortable doing so, you could try opening the external enclosure and replacing just the HDD inside, as the enclosure might still be fine. Replacement drives can be pretty affordable, but make sure to get one with the right capacity for your needs.
If the clicking is coming from the HDD, it's probably not going to be fixable. The best option would be to look into data recovery services if the data is critical, but that can get pricey. Otherwise, you might consider just salvaging the enclosure and getting a new HDD to put inside it.
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