Hard Drive Making Clicking Noise? Expert Data Recovery in London
Is your hard drive making a repetitive clicking or ticking sound and no longer being recognised by your computer? Don’t risk further damage by powering it on repeatedly. At Creative IT London, we specialise in data recovery from clicking hard drives – whether it’s a failed read/write head, spindle motor fault, or surface-level platter damage.
What Causes a Clicking Hard Drive?
Clicking or ticking sounds typically indicate physical failure. Some common causes include:
- Read/write head crash or failure
- Failed head stack assembly
- Firmware corruption preventing proper initialization
- Spindle motor issues or seized bearings
- Physical shock or impact damage (drive was dropped)
Symptoms of a Failing Hard Drive
- Clicking, ticking, or repetitive clunking noise
- Drive not detected by BIOS or operating system
- Slow or no response when accessing files
- Computer freezing or crashing during boot-up
What You Should Do (and Not Do)
To increase your chance of successful data recovery:
- Do not keep powering on the drive – this could worsen the damage
- Do not attempt DIY opening or freezing techniques
- Disconnect the drive and contact a professional recovery service
- Bring or send your device to our secure cleanroom lab
How We Recover Data from Clicking Drives
We use industry-leading techniques and tools like PC-3000 and head swap stations to perform successful recoveries from clicking drives:
- Cleanroom disassembly and evaluation of drive internals
- Head replacement using matched donor parts (if required)
- Firmware repair and controller board diagnostics
- Bit-level imaging of the drive to preserve all possible data
Supported Hard Drive Brands
We recover data from all major brands including:
- Western Digital (WD), Seagate, Toshiba, Samsung
- Hitachi (HGST), Fujitsu, Maxtor, IBM, LaCie
- External USB drives, desktop and laptop HDDs, RAID drives
Pricing
| Service Level | Description | Price (Inc. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic Assessment | Non-refundable cleanroom evaluation | £54 |
| Standard Mechanical Recovery | For failed heads, firmware or platter issues | From £270 |
| Advanced Recovery with Donor Parts | Head stack swap and component-level repair | From £370 |
Why Choose Creative IT?
- Over 20 years of data recovery experience
- Certified cleanroom environment for head swaps
- PC-3000 tools and experienced engineering team
- No recovery, no fee policy on most mechanical jobs
- Rapid turnaround and transparent pricing
Request a free quote now by calling 020 7237 6805 or emailing support@computerrepairsinlondon.co.uk. We’re open Monday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
Hard drive data recovery prices
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Free initial consultation | Free |
| Cleanroom diagnostic | £79 + VAT (£94.80 inc. VAT) |
| Physical recovery, single drive | £450 + VAT (£540 inc. VAT) labour, plus a donor drive if needed |
| Deleted files on a standard hard drive (up to two hours of work) | £99 + VAT (£118.80 inc. VAT) |
| Logical recovery, 24 to 48 hours of work | £150 + VAT (£180 inc. VAT) for 1TB, up to £250 + VAT (£300 inc. VAT) for 4TB |
The free consultation tells you whether the fault is physical or logical and the best way to recover your data. It doesn't include opening the drive in the cleanroom or any recovery attempt.
If a physical recovery needs a donor drive for parts, we send you a link to buy the exact match from donordrives.com. If you'd rather we buy it for you, we add 30% plus any import charges and VAT.
We can supply an external drive to return your recovered data on. The price depends on the market rate at the time.
See our full data recovery price list.
Book it in online
Free diagnosis, fixed quote before we start. You get a job number by email straight away.