Question: Hey everyone. My hdd started making noise after a power outage and it won’t start. It’s a WD5000aaks. Here’s how it sounds
Answer:That drive is toast. You can clearly (in the second recording) hear that the head mechanism is stuck. There is nothing you can do to fix this. If the data is that important then prepare to pay handsomely for a recovery service. And, keep in mind that recovery is never guaranteed. This is exactly why backups are preached. A drive can fail at any time, no matter how old/new.
Do NOT open the drive thinking that you can clear the fault. You will only render recovery near impossible due to contamination.