Wow, that is the worst set of advice I've ever seen. What site did that come from?
The information looks like it might have been written for the old sub-gigahertz drives from the 90's. I put in my comments. ( I design and repair high speed electromechanical devices for a living.)
Drive refuses to spin up (no noises):
- Clean contacts between board and motor.
Not accessible, forget it.
- Make sure the board is not shorting out against the drive.
Actualyl against the PC case or an adjacent drive.
- Check power cables, connectors, etc.
Good advice.
- Board swap, trying to match make, model, vintage.
This one is absurd. Requires microelectroncis tools and replacemet parts.
Drive refuses to spin up (chirps or other noises):
- Tap drive (or firmly shake it) while it tries to spin.
Good way to make the heads impact the platter destroying your data.
Drive spins, but loudly clicks/chirps:
- Freezer trick:
This will result in condensation and water build up on the platters and electronics ruining anything that might have been salvageable. With a 7200 RPM drive the water condensate could be heavy enough to unbalance the platter and cause catastrophic failure.
For several hundred dollars you can return the drive to the manufacturer and have them attempt data recovery. If the drive is not recognized by bios and the BIOS is set to "auto detect" go check the other threads for the tools to try and recover with.