08/10/2026
Seagate hard drive clicking and not showing up? Behind the scenes in our data recovery lab with a 4TB drive full of family photos.
This is a real case we worked on. A Seagate 4TB drive, model ST4000DM000, was sent to us from Melbourne. It had started clicking and would not show up on the computer, and it held years of irreplaceable family photos and personal files.
How our data recovery engineer approached it:
1. Recognised the sound straight away. That clicking is one of the most common Seagate failures and pointed to failed read heads.
2. Opened the drive in a dust free laminar flow cabinet and checked the platters first. No scoring or damage, so the data underneath was intact.
3. Fitted healthy donor heads from our own stock of more than 20,000 donor parts, then patched the ROM on the PC-3000 so the drive accepted its new parts.
4. During the clone, two of the eight heads ran slow and unstable. He read the six strong heads first to secure most of the data, then worked the two weak heads slowly to fill in the rest.
The clone was completed, and the files were extracted, verified and saved to a new drive.
A tip from the case: if a hard drive is clicking, turn it off and leave it off. Every power cycle keeps failed heads moving over the platters.
New Zealand customers, including Auckland, are welcome to send their drive in.
If you have a hard drive like this, or know someone who does, email [email protected] or call 0800 000 189.
Based in Australia, international customers welcome!
