HDD won't read...

[Goalie]

My second hard drive won't read.  It makes sounds, but is still unreadable.  I can send it to WD to get a warranty replacement, but I will lose all my data on there.  Tried a different computer with an external USB to hard drive cord, read for a split second but then nothing.  Acronis True Image might recover it, but wants money (of which I have none).

Does anyone have any free options/fixes?

My plan is to get my data off the HDD, then send it in to get a new drive.  If I lose my data, it's not the end of the world.  Most of it was music I got from my gf (which I can ask for again), games (which I can install again), and some docs from college.  I can get 90% of what I lost back, but it'll take a lot of time.

[Zeek]

not sure how well you are with tech but, if you know how. see if the HDD will appear in the BIOS

[MrMxyzptlk]

Before you do anything else, hook it up via USB again and get+install Recuva and see what it can recover. (This is always problematic because if there is physical damage to the drive, you'll only make it worse. If at all possible, recover the stuff from the "dead"/"dying" drive onto ANOTHER drive/partition instead of back onto the failing drive.)

There are much more advanced tools (most of which are $$$$) that can pull things together and even "fill in" unrecoverable data (!?!! I'm not joking tho....), but they cost a LOT.

Also note that these things can take a LONG time to do their thing: I once recovered a 600GB portable drive a pro photographer left on his car hood and then DROVE OVER when he took off. 

It took me eight passes over 13 days, but I managed to recover 97% of his data. (The tree structure had to be manually recreated, however, but all the data I could get was viable....)

You don't want to know what it cost him! ('Saved his butt tho!) 

[Goalie]

Sorry that I didn't see this in time.  I had to send in the HDD before the RMA expired, so I wasn't able to recover my data.

I will try these suggestions next time this happens, especially Recuva.