My hard drive crashed. Hard. I’m pretty sure there is something mechanically wrong with it (clicking and won’t even mount). What should I do to get my data off of it before replacing it?
RECOVERING DATAAFTER A HARD DISKMECHANICAL FAILURE |
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My hard drive crashed. Hard. I’m pretty sure there is something mechanically wrong with it (clicking and won’t even mount). What should I do to get my data off of it before replacing it? |
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Hard disk drives fail for two reasons: logical failures and mechanical failures. The latter is the worst kind, because it means you can’t use software to fix it. And in spite of what you read in the forums, there are no homebrew remedies for a mechanically failed hard drive. Your best bet is to take it to a professional data recovery company. I’m talking an actual factual data recovery lab, not the Geek Squad or Walgreens. Take it to a place that’s going to diagnose your hard drive’s electrical and mechanical parts and repair them enough to recover your data. | |
| I don’t personally handle many physically damaged hard drives. I usually recommend a few local companies to some of my clients. And when I refer them, I give them some upfront advice. I’ll give that to you now. | ||||
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Stop using the disk immediately |
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A failing hard disk becomes very unstable, and the instability usually worsens as you use it. The platters may be off kilter, there may be a speck of dirt on the read/write head or there may be some other minuscule yet disastrous defect in the innards of your hard drive. When this happens, your hard disk drive stops being a read/write storage device and instead becomes a data destroying machine. Each sector it reads could cause irreversible damage. So stop using it immediately. Focus on controlling the damage until you can get it into the hands of a pro. |
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Place it in an anti-static bag and handle it gently. |
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Like all PC components, hard drives are sensitive to electrostatic discharge. Walking across the carpet in socks and then touching your hard drive could cause further damage. Place it in an anti-static bag (you may have one leftover from the last PC component you bought, or get some from Amazon.com) and be very gentle with it as you transport it. Don’t jostle, drop, buffet, or otherwise subject the disk drive to shock. Imagine that the inside of your drive is like a tiny little record on a turntable. Compare it to what happens when you scratch a record. Except on your hard drive, one millimeter represents megabytes of data. |
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Be prepared to answer questions. |
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When diagnosing your problem, the technician will have some questions for you. What happened just before it failed? If it’s a laptop, was it dropped off on the floor? Was there a power surge? Was this a sudden failure or a gradual one? There are couple different things that can go wrong with a hard drive, such as the circuit board failing or the read-write head failing (“head crash”). Knowing what’s at fault can impact their course of action. If it’s a failed circuit board, they can usually just swap it out with a new one and you’re good to go. If the read-write head is failed, they can crack it open and replace that. If all else fails, the platters can be removed and placed in working unit and/or imaged. Each of these measures will have different price points. |
Oh and one last piece of advice: |
| be prepared to pay up! Hard drive recovery is delicate, highly technical work. It doesn’t come cheap. If your data is valuable enough for you to shell out the big bucks, then you should invest in a backup system next time! |
| Empathetically, |
| Your Disk Recovery Advisor |
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