JayKayJay That freezing behavior in R-Studio is a classic sign of a mechanical failure and most likely a read/write head crash from the drop. When the heads can’t calibrate, the drive gets stuck in a reset loop, which makes recovery software hang until the disk is powered off. The strange noises you hear are the actuator arm repeatedly failing to seek.
At this stage, DIY tools won’t work because the drive’s firmware can’t properly access the platters. Further power-ups risk platter scoring, which could permanently destroy the data. The standard process in labs is:
Donor Head Swap – Replace the damaged heads with a compatible donor set in a cleanroom.
Firmware Stabilization – Use hardware imagers (like PC-3000) to bypass bad modules and gain stable access.
Sector-by-Sector Imaging – Clone whatever data is still readable to a healthy drive, then extract files from the clone.
Unfortunately, none of this can be done with software alone.
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