Failing Hard Drive - iMac 21.5" 500gb seagate

Hello,

I have a 1 month old iMac 21.5" with the 500gb seagate HDD.
Two partitions, one with the mac os x and the other with windows xp (110gb, ntfs).

Last night, while i was working, the hdd started to make some clicking noise and the system slowed down (like when the cpu is at 100% all the time).

Now, booting takes forever. I did get the flashing folder with a question mark on it.

Everything is going so slow. The hdd makes the same noise over and over again - like it's stuck in an infinite loop.

i've recorded the sound on my phone:
Download memo.mp3 for free on uploading.com

I inserted the Mac OS X Install DVD and restarted while holding the c key down.
In the disk utility application, 'Verify Disk' and 'Repair Disk' tasks estimate more than 1 hour to complete. But after 15 minutes, the progress bar was still at ~5%.

SMART status is Verified.

I've tried creating an image of the hdd on an external drive connected via USB but with no luck. The screen doesn't pass the 'Preparing image engine...'.

I think there is a bad sector on the disk and cannot go past it.

Taking it to the authorized apple repair service for a hdd replacement would be my last option.

Is there anything else i can do before declare it dead?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on your first post, but if the drive just suddenly started clicking and refusing to do anything, the internal mechanical mechanism has failed. You need a new drive. Heading to an authorized apple repair is your first stop.

Unfortunately, it happens.

Chances to recover my data look pretty slim. The noise got stronger. Looks like a typical hdd failure.

So, the next thing to do is take it to apple.

Thank you for your reply.

Best of luck!