I ended up sending it to DataRecovery.com, I wanted one that was close to Canada.
They were extremely helpful, and way better compared to all the other listed “trusted” wd partners. They evaluated my drive free of cost + free shipping.
Unfortunately the drive is not recoverable. The head had severely scoured the disk, that weird clicking noise I was hearing was what caused it.
Next time your drive does not show up and begins to make weird noises, disconnect it immediately.
I know better next time to have a backup. Now I keep my files on at least 2 HDD’s.
Hopefully my WD Passport doesn’t fail again. Aside from this, I’ve usually have a good experience with them, so I’ll give them another chance. Definitely higher life duration than Seagate, but it’s a shame how fragile these things still are. Maybe in a few years, SSD’s will be cheaper and in larger capacities.
I would definitely use datarecovery.com again though.
