Right. It's not just me then.
HDDs. I had a Maxtor, and it's replacement fail in 2001. Since then I've only ever bought Western Digital Caviars, taking the advice of PcPro magazine at that time.
In the last 18 months six 1Tb Caviars have failed. The following is the final email to them when they refused to offer anything other than a replacement:-
Subject: Re: Goodwill gesture [ ref:_00DU0Jpn7._500U0Btj8y:ref ]
I just had a look at the package that you sent this drive in. It's clearly labelled as 're-certified'. I'd love to know how that was done, because (and I forgot to mention this) it screams as it starts.
I have bought only WD drives since 2001, possibly 50 of them. This was because you won a reliability test.
My position is that I can't trust these drives. One client lost a year's worth of photographs, and holds me partially to blame. Ex-client I should say. To have six out of seven fail means that there is nothing that I will use one for, and the replacement you send me will be used as a paperweight. The only one of the seven that I have left is used for temporary builds, and makes more noise than it should, so it's probably failing and you'll get that too.
Your reply, refusing any goodwill gesture, means that:-
1. Anybody who asks about the paperweight will be told the whole story about Western Digital and it's allegiance to loyal customers.
2. I will never buy a WD product again. Hello Samsung.
I am very disappointed in you.
Back to your woes. I've recovered drives by swapping the controller pcb, but you really have to try and get one with a very close serial number, which can take a while. A clunk fault (tm) is a bit more likely to be mechanical, but the controller is still worth a shot in case its throwing the heads the wrong way electrically. Probably teaching you to suck eggs, but don't think about opening the case. Spend your time buying the closest controller and don't get too morose. I lost two years worth of pictures - yes, of course they were backed-up. To a dying Western Digital drive.
I've never used, or known anyone that has used, one of the data recovery companies. Some of the advertising sounds highly suspect so I'd be looking for personal recommendations.