The strangest HDD failure I ever dealt with was a Toshiba notebook drive where the centre bearing had become shot. The notebook would not boot and the HDD sounded like a coffee grinder.
By moving the notebook in the air and trying different positions the noise changed. I was able to get the machine to eventually boot by holding the notebook in my hands at an angle and spinning myself on the spot. At the time I guess the gyroscopic forces were enough to get the bearing to sit right and the HDD to be able to spin properly. Doing so caused the drive to work long enough to get the most important files off it.
Definitely the strangest thing I’ve ever done to “fix” a piece of computing equipment.
By moving the notebook in the air and trying different positions the noise changed. I was able to get the machine to eventually boot by holding the notebook in my hands at an angle and spinning myself on the spot. At the time I guess the gyroscopic forces were enough to get the bearing to sit right and the HDD to be able to spin properly. Doing so caused the drive to work long enough to get the most important files off it.
Definitely the strangest thing I’ve ever done to “fix” a piece of computing equipment.