Plug-in drives · job log · ADR-2025-3475
Very Loud, and Then Not on the List at All.
The noise was the first symptom. The Touro S began making very loud spinning noises
, neither a click nor a knock, but rather some form of rotation under load. After that, the drive was no longer accessible as a drive when plugged in
, and that was the end of it. Approximately 500GB of data was stored on the drive. Of that total, approximately 300GB had been backed up to another drive a good few years back
, leaving the remainder open to risk: his files from approx 2017-2019 weren't back up
, and those were the files he asked about first, last and in between. A 2TB SSD had already been purchased by him to put the results of the recovery onto. Essentially, what he requested from us was simply to tell him if we could access the newer two hundred gigabytes before the mechanism stopped for good.
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What failed, and why.
In a hard disk two things move: the discs themselves turn on one bearing at a constant rate, and the heads on the arm cross over them. A loud spin indicates the first of these. The bearings deteriorate and the lubrication wears down, and when a spindle begins to labour, it produces exactly the sound he described: steady rather than intermittent, and louder than it was last month. Additionally, the fact that the drive would no longer present itself is another iteration of this same problem, only one step further along. Drives do not offer interfaces until they have accelerated up to their operational speeds and stabilised. If a motor fails to reach or hold its operational speed, it will never arrive at the phase where it presents itself. This type of failure matters more than a clicking noise, because the noise will not resolve itself. With every passing hour of use you add additional stress to the component that has to continue rotating in order to begin reading anything at all. At some point, regardless of how well you maintain it, you can't get it going again. Shutting off the device represents the whole of your first aid.
What the bench did with it.
The order of the job →| Equipment used | Its work on this job | The reason for it |
|---|---|---|
| PC-3000 Data Extractor | Firmware and defect tables are read out first. Then the passes are run through, ordered head by head | Instead of working around the drive's firmware and controller, it works with the two natively |
| DeepSpar Disk Imager 4 | Newest areas of the disk were copied first, and after that the remaining area, one surface per pass | Mapped the heads first, then imaged one face of a platter per pass, with every reset, timeout and the power itself kept under our own control |
| UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | Folder tree structure rebuilt from the copy of the data. Extracted the files created between 2017 and 2019 | When other applications will not open it, this application will open APFS, ReFS, XFS, ZFS and Btrfs. |
What the bench did with it.
What the noise turned out to be
The lid was removed and the spindle was the first thing to be inspected. Although the spindle turned, it did so with some resistance due to the worn bearing. The wear was significant enough to prevent the platters from running true. That is the source of the noise. The heads were evaluated using a microscope prior to making any other decision. This is because when a spindle wears out and becomes misaligned, the heads are forced across the platter at incorrect heights, and how much damage has already occurred to the surfaces can't be estimated: it is a question of their condition rather than of opinion.
Take the files he named before the rest
From his first message, he clearly stated which type of material was important. On this particular unit, that order is not a courtesy; it is the method. Therefore, the 2017 to 2019 files were prioritised first within the imaging plan, and then read first while the unit was still able to function properly. As such, the older sectors, which he already had a copy of, were placed at the bottom of the list. These older sectors would wait until the end of the imaging process, which is where the risk of the run stopping for any reason belonged.
One run, and then it stays switched off
This was a single run. There was no second run. Sound areas were scanned at their maximum possible rate. Any difficult-to-scan bands were always scanned last and limited to a set number of attempts each, rather than an open-ended number, so that no bad patch could hold the machine on a labouring drive for hours. When the run ended, the Touro left the bench and did not return.
What went home.
The 2017 to 2019 data was transferred to the new SSD he had bought for it. Older data, the portion he had previously stored elsewhere, came over too, but only some of it, since the last regions read were the ones the plan had put last. Anything that failed to answer is identified by its name in the recovery report, which does not include percentages anywhere. The Touro is finished. A worn spindle will only wear again, and there’s little use for a drive in that state: it can never serve as a backup.
Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.
Further portable-drive jobs, written up.
Yours doing something similar? Power it down first.
Published prices are fixed. Memory cards and USB sticks are £250 + VAT. Any stand-alone drive is £300 + VAT. Drive configurations containing multiple disks (RAID, NAS or server) start at £500 + VAT. First assessments are always complimentary. Thereafter, data recovery charges are also fixed in advance and in writing, so you'll always know how much you owe before paying any money. Shut it down, get a quote first (by phone or with the form), then send it in or drop it off at our Guildford intake laboratory, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed). On most jobs you only pay if we recover your data.