D600 Hard Drive Damaged. Need fix fast!

I have a Dell Latitude D600 that came with a 60gb hard drive. I had a D600 previous to this one with a 40gb hard drive and I swapped this hard drive into the newer D600 since I had all my important data stored on it already.

Just the other day when I was performing some maintenance on the D600, I accidentally dropped the 40gb on the floor when it was out of the computer. I thought everything was fine because it seemed to boot up when I re-installed it, but I hadn't actually tried using it until today.

I tried to access the information on my 40gb but the computer is running excruciatingly slow. It takes in excess of 20 minutes for the computer to boot up. The hard drive now makes noises that it never made before that are painful indications that something is wrong. It sounds as though there may have been some mechanical damage to the mechanism inside. The normal noises made when the hard drive is functioning are there, but it will now make high pitched screeching noises. All the information is still there, but the hard drive can't seem to access it properly.

If I try to access any folders with a substantial amount if info on them, it will crash (ie: blue screen of death). Opening any program takes a very long time. It also feels very warm if I remove the drive after it crashes.

Unfortunately I have well over 6gb of medical and research articles saved on here and another 5-6gb of videos and pictures since 2005, not to mention the music saved on it. I did perform a back-up several months ago, but the articles on the computer were not organized and I have added new data since then. It took me several days to complete all the articles, a task I dread doing again.

Does anyone know what may be wrong and if I can have the data I need recovered? I imagine that if the hard discs inside the drive can be removed and placed inside a functioning case it may work, or if the damaged mechanism can be repaired I can save my info. Am I wishfully thinking?

Thank for the help.

 

if you have a desktop run the 40gb as a slave and see if you can get your data off that way, then bin it.

 

You are best off to seek a professional recovery service. It isn't exactly cheap, but is the best chance you have to recover your data. Contact the drive manufacturer for some possible recommendations for service.

You don't want to attempt opening the drive yourself. If you get any foreign particles in it, even operating at 5400 RPM, the drive will tear itself apart.

 

Most drive manufacturer offer recovery services wherein they take apart the drivers remove the platters and install in other casing to get the data out. My understanding is it is expensive - around $1000 and give or take some.