Can a Dead Hard Drive Be Recovered?

A drive that isn't detected by the computer at all can still often be recovered — 'not detected' usually means a fault with the drive's electronics or file system, not that the data itself is gone.

A drive making a repeating clicking or grinding noise is a different situation. That's usually a mechanical fault inside the drive itself, and continuing to power it on and off repeatedly can cause further physical damage to the platters, reducing what's recoverable.

If your drive is clicking: turn it off, stop trying to access it, and bring it in as it is. Don't run recovery software on it yourself — consumer recovery tools generally aren't designed for a drive with a physical fault, and can make things worse.

SSDs fail differently to traditional mechanical hard drives — there's no clicking, but recovery techniques differ too. Either way, the same rule applies: stop using the drive and get it assessed before doing anything else.