How bad is the damage? I priced it out for an Aunt a few years ago and I think it was like $500 to $10,000 depending on the problem. I ended up spending $100 on data recovery software and had my aunt mail the drive to me. I was actually able to recover every thing thing she needed and several billions files she didn't. When you do a recovery it reincarnates every file you ever deleted including the ever revolving web-cache. I discarded all the tiny files which was like 90% of all the data and sent her the rest on DVDs.
They aren't mine, but it's 2 external Seagate drives that a Mac or PC won't recognize. I opened them up and you can hear them clicking... which I've read is the worst case scenario. I basically said it was not going to be affordable to recovery anything, but she's a photographer with a lot of pictures on them I guess.
You actually took the drive apart? I saw a you tube video once of a guy who bought an identical working drive and swapped parts. That's probably a last resort as failure is highly probable. I also had a bad drive that Windows couldn't see but Linux did.
Not the drive, the external case. With the cover open the clicking sound is audible... maybe I will try a Linux boot CD.
I need a 2TB - 3TB internal hard drive and I think WD and Seagate are the only manufacturers that still make them. So my choices are a 5400rpm WD Blue, Seagate with a high failure rate, or take a chance on new old stock for another brand. A lot of people who buy Toshiba and HGST are reporting they're getting refurbished drives sold as new. I think those companies stopped making new drives around 2011. https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-benchmark-stats-2016/
91% failure rate on the Seagate 1.5TB. lol. I had one of those drives. I had it replaced 6 times I shit you not.
I actually ordered a recertified 3TB HGST. I never imagined I'd order a recertified hard drive but after considering all things it seems like a good choice. The reviews for them seem better than many new drives and then the numbers below are impressive. I mostly plan to use the drive as a back-up to two other drives.